BP 

563 

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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 


IN  MEMORY  OF 

Takusei  Mizuno 


DHARMA 

3Y 

ANNIE   BESANT 


DHARMA 


BY 


ANNIE  BESANT 


THIRD  EDITION 


THEOSOPHICAL  PUBLISHING  HOUSE 

KROTONA,  HOLLYWOOD.  LOS  ANGELES 

CAUFORNIA 

1918 


LOAN  STAOf 
GIFT 


DHARMA 

DIFFERENCES 


When  the  nations  of  the  earth  were  sent  forth 
one  after  the  other,  a  special  work  was  given  by 
God  to  each,  the  word  which  each  was  to  say  to 
the  world,  the  peculiar  word  from  the  Eternal 
which  each  one  was  to  speak.  As  we  glance  over 
the  history  of  nations,  we  can  hear  resounding 
from  the  collective  mouth  of  the  people  this  word, 
spoken  out  in  action,  the  contribution  of  that 
nation  to  the  ideal  and  perfect  humanity.  To 
Egypt  in  old  days,  the  word  was  Religion;  to 
Persia  the  word  was  Purity ;  to  Chaldea  the  word 
was  Science;  to  Greece  the  word  was  Beauty; 
to  Rome  the  word  was  Law ;  and  to  India,  the 
eldest-born  of  His  children,  to  India  He  gave  a 
word  that  summed  up  the  whole  in  one,  the  word 
DHARMA.  That  is  the  word  of  India  to  the 
world. 

But  we  cannot  speak  this  ward,  so  full  of  mean- 
ing, so  vast  in  its  out-reaching  force,  without 
making  our  obeisance  at  the  feet  of  him  who  is 
the  greatest  embodiment  of  Dharma  that  the 
world  has  ever  seen — Bhishma,  the  son  af  Ganga, 

..     075 


L  DHARMA 

the  mightiest  incarnation  of  Duty.  Come  with 
me  for  a  while,  travelling  five  thousand  years 
back  in  time,  anr  see  this  hero,  lying  on  his  bed 
of  arrows  on  the  field  of  Kurukshetra,  there  hold- 
ing Death  at  bay,  until  the  right  hour  should 
strike.  We  pass  through  heaps  upon  heaps  of 
the  slaughtered  warriors,  over  mountains  of  dead 
elephants  and  horses,  and  we  pass  by  many  a 
funeral  pyre,  many  a  pile  of  broken  weapons  and 
chariots.  We  come  to  the  hero  lying  on  the  bed 
of  arrows,  transfixed  with  hundreds  of  arrows 
and  his  head  resting  on  a  pillow  of  arrows.  For 
he  has  rejected  the  pillows  they  brought  him  of 
soft  down,  and  accepted  only  the  arrowy  pillow 
made  by  Arjuna.  He,  perfect  in  Dharma,  had, 
while  still  a  youth,  for  the  sake  of  his  father,  for 
the  sake  of  the  duty  that  he  owed  to  his  father, 
for  the  sake  of  the  love  he  bore  to  his  father, 
made  that  great  vow  of  renouncing  family  life, 
renouncing  the  crown,  in  order  that  the  father's 
will  might  be  done,  and  the  father's  heart  be  sat- 
isfied. An3  Shantanu  gave  him  his  blessing,  that 
wondrous  boon,  that  death  should  not  come  to 
him  until  it  came  at  his  own  command,  until  he 
willed  to  die.  When  he  fell,  pierced  by  hundreds 
of  arrows,  the  sun  was  in  his  southern  path,  and 
the  season  was  not  favourable  for  the  death  of 
one  who  was  not  to  return  any  more.  He  used 
the  power  that  his  father  had  given  him,  and 
made  death  stand  aside  until  the  sun  should  open 
up  the  way^to  eternal  peace  and  liberation.     As  he 


DIFFERENCES  3 

lay  there  for  many  a  weary  day,  racked  with  the 
agonies  of  his  wounds,  tortured  by  the  anguish 
of  the  mangled  body  that  he  wore,  there  came 
around  him  many  Rishis  and  the  remnants  of  the 
Aryan  kings,  and  thither  came  also  Shri  Krishna, 
to  see  the  faithful  one.  Thither  came  the  five 
princes,  the  sons  of  Pandu,  the  victors  in  the 
mighty  war,  and  they  stood  round  him  weeping 
and  worshipping  him,  and  longing  to  be  taught 
by  him.  To  him,  in  the  midst  of  that  bitter  an- 
guish, came  the  words  from  One  whose  lips  were 
the  lips  of  God,  and  He  released  him  from  the 
burning  fever,  and  He  gave  him  bodily  rest  and 
clearness  of  mind  and  quietness  of  the  inner  man, 
and  then  He  bade  him  teach  to  the  world  what 
Dharma  is — he  whose  whole  life  had  taught  it, 
who  had  not  swerved  from  the  path  of  righteous- 
ness, who,  whether  as  son,  or  prince,  or  states- 
man, or  warrior,  had  always  trodden  the  narrow 
path.  He  was  asked  for  teaching  by  those  who 
were  around  him,  and  Vasuveda  bade  him  speak 
of  Dharma,  because  he  was  fit  to  teach.* 

Then  there  drew  closer  round  him  the  sons  of 
Pandu,  headed  by  their  eldest  brother  Yudhish- 
thira,  who  was  the  leader  of  the  host  that  had 
brought  Bhishma  to  his  death ;  and  he  was  afraid 
of  coming  near  and  asking  questions,  thinking 
that  as  the  arrows  were  really  his,  being  shot  for 
his  cause,  he  was  guilty  of  the  blood  of  his  elder, 

♦  Mah&hharata,   Shanti   Parva,    §   LIV. 


4  DHARMA 

and  he  ought  not  to  ask  to  be  taught.  Seeing  his 
hesitation,  Bhishma,  whose  mind  was  ever  bal- 
anced, who  had  trodden  the  difficult  path  of  duty 
without  being  moved  to  the  right  hand  or  the 
left,  spoke  the  memorable  words :  "As  the  duty 
of  Brahmanas  consists  in  the  practice  of  charity, 
study,  and  penance,  so  the  duty  of  Kshattriyas 
is  to  cast  away  their  bodies  in  battle.  A  Kshat- 
triya  should  slay  sires  and  grandsires  and  broth- 
ers and  preceptors  and  relatives  and  kinsmen, 
that  may  engage  with  him  in  unjust  battle.  This 
is  their  declared  duty.  That  Kshattriya,  O  Kesh- 
ava,  is  said  to  be  acquainted  with  his  duty  who 
slays  in  battle  his  very  preceptors,  if  they  happen 
to  be  sinful  and  covetous  and  disregardful  of 
restraints  and  vows  .  .  .  Ask  me,  O  child,  with- 
out any  anxiety.''  Then,  just  as  Vasuveda,  in 
speaking  of  Bhishma,  had  described  Bhishma's 
right  to  speak  as  teacher,  so  Bhishma  himself  in 
turn,  in  addressing  the  princes,  described  the 
qualities  that  were  needed  in  those  who  would 
ask  questions  on  the  problem  of  Dharma: 

"Let  the  son  of  Pandu,  in  whom  are  intelli- 
gence, self-restraint,  Brahmacharya,  forgiveness, 
righteousness,  mental  vigour  and  energy,  put 
questions  to  me.  Let  the  son  of  Pandu,  who  al- 
ways by  his  good  offices  honours  his  relatives  and 
guests  and  servants  and  others  that  are  dependent 
on  him,  put  questions  to  me.  Let  the  son  of 
Pandu,  in  whom  are  truth  and  charity  and  pen- 


ances,  heroism,  peacefulness,  cleverness  and  fear- 
lesness,  put  questions  to  me/'* 

Such  are  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
man  who  may  seek  to  understand  the  mysteries 
of  Dharma.  Such  are  the  quahties  which  you 
and  I  must  try  to  develop,  if  we  are  to  understand 
the  teachings,  if  we  are  to  be  worthy  to  enquire. 

Then  began  that  wonderful  discourse,  without 
parallel  among  the  discourses  of  the  world.  It 
treats  of  the  duties  of  kings  and  of  subjects,  the 
duties  of  the  four  orders,  of  the  four  modes  of 
life,  duties  of  every  kind  of  man,  duties  distinct 
from  each  other  and  suited  to  every  stage  of  evo- 
lution. Every  one  of  you  ought  to  know  that 
great  discourse,  ought  to  study  it,  not  only  for  its 
literary  beauty,  but  for  its  moral  grandeur.  If 
we  could  but  follow  on  the  path  traced  by  Bhish- 
ma,  then  would  our  evolution  quicken,  then  would 
the  day  of  India's  redemption  draw  nearer  to  its 
dawn. 

With  regard  to  morality — a  subject  closely 
bound  up  with  Dharma,  and  which  cannot  be 
understood  without  a  knowledge  of  what  is  meant 
by  Dharma — with  regard  to  morality,  some  think 
that  it  is  a  simple  thing.  So  it  is  in  its  broad 
outlines.  The  boundaries  of  right  and  wrong  in 
the  common  actions  of  life  are  clear,  simple,  and 
definite.  For  a  man  of  small  development,  for  a 
man  of  narrow   intelligence,   for  a  man  of  re- 

•  MaMhhdrata,    Shanti    Parva,    §    LV. 


6  DHARMA 

stricted  knowledge,  morality  seems  simple  enough. 
But  for  those  of  deep  knowledge  and  high  in- 
telligence, for  those  who  are  evolving  towards  the 
higher  grades  of  humanity,  for  those  who  desire 
to  understand  its  mysteries,  for  them  morality 
is  very  difficult :  "morality  is  very  subtle,"  as  the 
prince  Yudhishthira  said  when  he  was  dealing 
with  the  problem  of  the  marriage  of  Krishna  with 
the  five  sons  of  Pandu.  And  one  greater  than 
that  prince  had  spoken  of  the  difficulty;  Shri 
Krishna,  the  Avatara,  in  His  discourse  delivered 
on  the  field  of  Kurukshetra,  spoke  on  this  very 
question  of  the  difficulty  of  action.  He  said: — 
"What  is  action,  what  inaction  ?  Even  the  wise 
are  hereby  perplexed.  It  is  needful  to  discrimi- 
nate action,  to  discriminate  unlawful  action,  to 
discriminate  inaction;  mysterious  is  the  path  of 
action.''* 

Mysterious  is  the  path  of  action;  mysterious, 
because  morality  is  not,  as  the  simple-minded 
think,  one  and  the  same  for  all ;  because  it  varies 
with  the  Dharma  of  the  individual.  What  is  right 
for  one  is  wrong  for  another.  And  what  is  wrong 
for  one  is  right  for  another.  Morality  is  an  indi- 
vidual thing,  and  it  depends  upon  the  Dharma  of 
the  man  who  is  acting,  and  not  upon  what  is  some- 
*  times  called  ^'absolute  right  and  wrong."  There  is 
nothing  absolute  in  a  conditioned  universe.  And 
right  and  wrong  are  relative,  and  must  be  judged 

*  Bhagavad  Gitd,  iv.   16-17. 


DII^FERENC^S  7 

in  relation  to  the  individual  and  his  duties.  Thus 
the  greatest  of  all  Teachers  said  with  regard  to 
Dharma — and  this  will  guide  us  in  our  tangled 
path — ''Better  one's  own  Dharma,  though  desti- 
tute of  merit,  than  the  Dharma  of  another  well- 
discharged.  Better  death  in  the  discharge  of 
one's  own  Dharma ;  the  Dharma  of  another  is 
full  of  danger."* 

He  repeated  the  same  thought  again  at  the  end 
of  that  immortal  discourse,  and  He  said — but 
then  changed  in  such  a  way  as  to  throw  fresh 
light  on  the  subject — ''Better  is  one's  own  Dhar- 
ma, though  destitute  of  merits,  than  the  well- 
executed  Dharma  of  another.  He  who  doeth 
the  Karma  laid  down  by  his  own  nature  incur- 
reth  not  sin."f  There  He  expounds  more  fully 
this  teaching,  and  He  traces  for  us  one  by  one 
the  Dharma  of  the  four  great  castes,  and  the 
very  wording  that  He  uses  shows  us  the  meaning 
of  this  word,  which  is  sometimes  translated  as 
Duty,  sometimes  as  Law,  sometimes  as  Right- 
eousness, som^etimes  as  Religion.  It  means  these, 
and  more  than  any  of  them,  for  the  meaning  is 
deeper  and  wider  than  any  of  these  words  ex- 
presses. Let  us  take  the  words  of  Shri  Krishna 
when  speaking  of  the  Dharma  of  the  four  castes : 
— "Of  Prahmanas,  Kshattriyas,  Vaishyas,  and 
Shudras,  O  Parantapa,  the  Karmas  have  been 
distributed  according  to  the  gunas  horn  of  their 
own  natures.     Serenity,  self-restraint,  austerity, 

*  Bhagavad  GUa,  iii.   35.  t  Bhagavad   Gita,    xviii.    47 


8  DHARMA 

purity,  forgiveness,  and  also  uprightness,  wis- 
dom, knowledge,  belief  in  God,  are  the  Brah- 
mana-Karma,  born  of  his  own  nature.  Prowess, 
splendour,  firmness,  dexterity,  and  also  not  fly- 
ing from  battle,  generosity,  »the  nature  of  a 
ruler,  are  the  Kshattriya-Karma,  born  of  his 
own  nature.  Ploughing,  protection  of  kine,  and 
trade  are  the  Vaishya-Karma,  born  of  his  own 
nature.  Action  of  the  nature  of  service  is  the 
Shudra-Karma,  born  of  his  own  nature.  Man 
reacheth  perfection  by  each  being  intent  on  his 
own  Karma/' 

Then  he  goes  on  to  say :  "Better  one's  own 
Dharma,  though  destitute  of  merits,  than  the 
well-executed  Dharma  of  another.  He  who  do- 
eth  the  Karma  laid  down  by  his  own  nature  in- 
curreth  not  sin.'* 

See  how  the  two  words  Dharma  and  Karma 
are  interchanged.  They  give  us  the  key  which 
we  shall  use  to  unlock  our  problem.  Let  me  give 
you  first  a  partial  definition  of  Dharma.  I  can- 
not make  the  whole  definition  clear  at  once.  I 
will  give  you  the  first  half  of  it,  dealing  with  the 
second  half  when  we  come  to  it.  The  first  half 
is  that  "Dharma  is  the  inner  nature,  which  has 
reached  in  each  man  a  certain  stage  of  develop- 
ment and  unfolding."  It  is  this  inner  nature 
which  moulds  the  outer  life,  which  is  expressed 
by  thoughts,  words,  and  actions,  the  inner  nature 
which  is  born  into  the  environment  suited  for  its 


DII^^ERENCKS  9 

further  growth.  The  first  idea  to  grasp  is  that 
Dharma  is  not  an  outer  thing,  Hke  the  law,  or 
righteousness,  or  rehgion,  or  justice.  It  is  the 
law  of  the  unfolding  life,  which  moulds  all  out- 
side it  to  the  expression  of  itself. 

Now,  in  trying  to  trace  out  this  difficult  and 
abstruse  subject,  I  will  treat  it  under  three  main 
divisions.  First,  Differences,  for  people  have 
different  Dharmas.  Even  in  the  passage  quoted 
four  great  classes  are  mentioned.  Looking  more 
closely,  each  individual  man  has  his  own  Dhar- 
ma. How  shall  we  understand  these?  Unless 
we  grasp  something  of  the  nature  of  differences ; 
why  they  came  to  be,  why  they  should  exist, 
and  what  we  mean  when  we  speak  of  differences ; 
unless  we  understand  how  each  man  shows  by 
him  thoughts,  words,  and  actions,  the  stage  he 
has  reached:  unless  we  grasp  this,  we  cannot 
understand  Dharma.  Then,  secondly,  we  shall 
have  to  deal  with  Evolution.  For  we  must 
trace  these  differences  as  they  evolve.  Lastly, 
we  must  deal  with  the  problem  of  Right  and 
Wrong,  for  the  whole  of  our  study  leads  up  to 
the  answer  to  the  question :  ''How  should  a  man 
conduct  his  life?"  It  would  not  be  worth  while 
to  ask  you  to  follow  me  into  difficult  regions  of 
thought,  unless  in  the  end  we  are  to  turn  our 
knowledge  to  good  account,  and  try  to  lead  lives 
according  to  Dharma,  thus  giving  to  the  world 
that  which  India  was  meant  to  teach. 


10  DHARMA 

In  what  does  the  perfection  of  a  universe  con- 
sist? When  we  begin  to  think  over  a  universe 
and  what  we  mean  by  it,  we  find  we  mean  a  vast 
number  of  separated  objects  working  together 
more  or  less  harmoniously.  Variety  is  the  key- 
note of  the  universe,  as  unity  is  the  note  of  the 
Unmanifest,  of  the  Unconditioned — the  One 
without  a  second.  Diversity  is  the  note  of  the 
manifested  and  conditioned — the  result  of  the 
will  to  become  many. 

When  a  universe  is  to  come  into  existence,  we 
learn,  the  First  Cause,  the  Eternal,  the  Incon- 
ceivable, the  Indiscernible,  the  Subtle,  shines 
forth  by  His  own  Will.  What  that  shining  forth 
may  mean  within  Himself  none  may  dare  to 
guess.  What  it  means  on  the  side  from  which 
we  regard  it,  that  to  some  extent  may  be  grasped. 
Ishvara  comes  forth.  But  He,  coming  forth, 
appears  enwrapped  in  the  veil  of  Maya — there 
are  two  sides  of  the  Supreme  in  manifestation. 
Many  words  have  been  used  to  express  that 
fundamental  pair  of  opposites:  Ishvara  and 
Maya,  Sat  and  Asat,  Reality  and  Unreality, 
Spirit  and  Matter,  Life  and  Form.  These  are 
words  which  we,  in  our  limited  language,  use  to 
express  that  which  is  well-nigh  beyond  the  grasp 
of  thinking.  All  that  we  can  say  is :  "Thus  have 
the  Sages  taught  us,  and  thus  we  in  humility 
repeat.'' 

Ishvara  and  Maya.     What  is  the  universe  to 


DIFFERENCES  11 

be  ?  It  is  the  image  of  Ishvara  reflected  in  Maya 
— the  perfected  image  of  Ishvara,  as  He  has 
chosen  to  condition  himself  for  this  particular 
universe  whose  birth  hour  is  come.  His  image 
— Hmited,  conditioned.  His  self-conditioned 
image,  the  universe  is  in  perfection  to  declare. 
But  how  shall  that  which  is  limited,  that  which  is 
partial,  image  Ishvara?  By  the  multiplicity  of 
parts  working  together  in  one  harmonious 
whole;  infinite  variety  of  differences,  and  the 
manifold  combinations  of  each  with  each,  shall 
speak  forth  the  law  of  the  divine  thought,  until 
the  whole  thought  is  expressed  in  the  totality  of 
that  perfected  universe.  You  should  try  to 
catch  some  glimpse  of  what  this  means.  Let  us 
together  seek  to  understand. 

Ishvara  thinks  of  Beauty;  at  once  His  mighty 
energy,  all-potent,  generative,  strikes  upon  Maya, 
and  develops  it  into  myriad  forms  of  objects  that 
we  call  beautiful.  It  touches  the  matter  that  is 
ready  to  be  moulded — for  example,  water;  and 
the  water  takes  on  a  million  forms  of  beauty. 
We  see  one  in  the  vast  expanse  of  ocean,  still  and 
tranquil,  where  no  wind  is  blowing,  and  where 
the  sky  is  mirrored  in  its  deep  bosom.  Then  we 
catch  another  form  of  Beauty,  when  the  wind 
lashes  it  into  billows  upon  billows,  and  abyss 
beneath  abyss,  till  the  whole  mass  is  terrible  in 
its  fury  and  grandeur.  Then  a  new  form  of 
Beauty  comes  forth  from  it,  and  the  raging  and 
the  foaming  waters  are  hushed,  and  the  ocean 


12  DHARMA 

is  changed  into  myriad  ripples,  glittering  and 
glistening  under  the  moon  which  shines  upon 
them,  her  rays  broken  and  bent  into  a  thousand 
corruscations.  And  this  gives  us  another  hint 
of  what  Beauty  means.  And  then  we  look  at 
the  ocean  where  no  land  limits  the  horizon  and 
where  the  vast  expanse  is  unbroken,  and  again 
we  stand  on  the  shore  and  see  the  waves  break- 
ing at  our  feet.  With  every  change  of  mood 
of  the  sea,  its  waters  speak  out  a  new  thought  of 
Beauty.  Another  glimpse  of  the  thought  of 
Beauty  thrown  into  water  we  see  in  the  moun- 
tain lake,  in  the  stillness  and  serenity  of  its  quiet 
bosom ;  and  in  the  stream  that  leaps  from  rock  to 
rock;  and  in  the  torrent  that  dashes  itself  into 
millions  of  spray-drops,  catching  and  refracting 
the  sunlight  into  all  the  hues  of  the  rainbow.  So 
from  water  in  every  shape  and  form,  from  the 
tossing  ocean  to  the  frozen  iceberg,  from  the 
foggy  mists  to  the  gorgeously  coloured  clouds, 
bursts  forth  the  thought  of  Beauty  impressed 
upon  it  by  Ishvara,  when  the  word  came  forth 
from  Him.  When  we  leave  the  water,  we  learn 
new  thoughts  of  beauty  in  the  tender  creeper,  in 
its  mass  of  brilliant  colours,  in  the  stronger  plant 
and  the  sturdier  oak,  and  the  dark  obscurity  of 
forest  depths.  New  thoughts  of  beauty  come  to 
us  from  the  face  of  every  mountain  peak,  and 
from  the  vast  rolling  prairie,  where  the  earth 
seems  to  break  into  new  possibilities  of  life, 
from  the  sand  of  the  desert,  from  the  green  of 


DIl^I^ERENCKS  13 

the  meadow.  If  we  are  tired  of  the  earth,  the 
telescope  brings  to  our  view  the  beauty  of  myr- 
iads of  suns,  rushing  and  rolling  through  the 
depths  of  space.  Then  the  microscope  reveals 
to  our  wondering  gaze  the  beauty  of  the  infinitely 
small,  as  the  telescope  does  of  the  infinitely 
great;  and  thus  a  new  door  is  opened  to  us  for 
the  contemplation  of  Beauty.  Around  us  we 
have  thousands  and  millions  of  objects  that  are 
all  beautiful.  From  the  grace  of  the  animal, 
from  the  strength  of  man,  from  the  supple  beauty 
of  woman,  from  the  dimples  of  the  laughing  chil- 
dren, from  all  these  things  we  catch  some 
glimpses  of  what  the  thought  of  Beauty  is  in  the 
mind  of  Ishvara. 

In  this  fashion  we  may  sense  something  of  the 
way  in  which  His  thought  broke  into  myriad 
forms  of  splendour,  when  He  spoke  as  Beauty  to 
the  world.  The  same  in  the  case  with  Strength, 
Energy,  Harmony,  Music,  and  so  on.  You  grasp, 
then,  why  there  should  be  variety;  because  no 
limited  thing  may  fully  tell  Him,  because  no 
limited  form  may  fully  express  Him.  But  as 
each  becomes  perfect  of  its  kind,  all  combined 
may  partly  reveal  Him.  Thus  the  perfection  of 
the  Universe  is  perfection  in  variety  and  in  the 
harmony  of  inter-related  parts. 

Having  reached  that  conception,  we  begin  to 
see  that  the  Universe  can  only  gain  perfection  by 
each  part  performing  its  own  function,  and  de- 


14  DHARMA 

veloping  completely  its  own  share  of  life.  If 
the  tree  tries  to  imitate  the  mountain,  or  the 
water  to  imitate  the  earth,  each  would  miss  its 
own  beauty  and  fail  to  show  that  of  the  other. 
The  perfection  of  the  body  does  not  depend  upon 
every  cell  doing  the  work  of  the  other  cells,  but 
in  each  cell  doing  its  own  part  perfectly.  We 
have  brain,  lungs,  heart,  digestive  organs,  and  so 
on.  If  the  brain  tried  to  do  the  work  of  the 
heart,  and  the  lungs  tried  to  digest  food,  then  the 
body  would  indeed  be  in  a  melancholy  condition. 
The  health  of  the  body  is  secured  by  each  organ 
doing  its  own  part.  We  thus  realise  that  as  the 
Universe  develops,  each  part  is  going  along  the 
road  which  is  marked  out  by  the  law  of  its  own 
life.  The  image  of  Ishvara  in  nature  will  never 
be  perfect,  until  each  part  is  complete  in  itself 
and  in  its  relations  to  the  others. 

How  can  these  innumerable  differences  arise? 
How  can  all  these  differences  come  into  exist- 
ence? How  does  the  Universe,  as  it  evolves  as 
a  whole,  stand  in  relation  to  its  parts  evolving 
each  on  its  separate  line?  We  are  told  that  Ish- 
vara, expressing  himself  on  the  Prakriti  side, 
shows  forth  three  qualities — Sattva,  Rajas,  and 
Tamas.  No  English  words  are  equivalent  to  or 
can  satisfactorily  translate  these.  I  may,  how- 
ever, for  the  moment  translate  Tamas  as  inertia, 
the  quality  that  does  not  move,  that  gives  sta- 
biHty ;  Rajas  is  the  quality  of  energy  and  motion ; 


di^i^erence:s  15 

and  Sattva  is  perhaps  best  expressed  by  harmony, 
the  quaHty  of  pleasure-giving,  as  all  pleasure 
springs  from  harmony  and  only  harmony  can 
give  it.  Then  we  learn  that  these  three  gunas  are 
further  modified  in  seven  kinds  of  ways — seven 
great  lines,  as  it  were,  along  which  innumerable 
combinations  evolve.  Every  religion  speaks  of 
this  sevenfold  division,  every  religion  proclaims 
its  existence.  In  Hinduism,  they  are  the  five 
great  elements  and  the  two  beyond.  These  are 
the  seven  Purushas  of  whom  Manu  speaks. 

These  three  gunas  combine  and  divide,  arrang- 
ing themselves  into  seven  great  groups,  from 
which  arise  vast  numbers  of  things  by  various 
combinations ;  remember  that  into  each  separate 
thing  each  of  these  qualities  enters  in  different 
proportions,  modified  in  one  of  the  seven  funda- 
mental ways. 

From  this  primary  difference  brought  over 
from  a  universe  of  the  past — for  world  is  linked 
to  world  and  universe  to  universe — we  find  that 
the  downpouring  life  divided  and  subdivided  it- 
self as  it  fell  into  matter,  till,  reaching  the  cir- 
cumference of  the  mighty  circle,  it  rolled  back 
upon  itself.  Evolution  begins  at  the  turning- 
point  where  the  wave  of  life  begins  to  return  to 
Ishvara.  The  previous  stage  is  the  stage  of  in- 
volution, during  which  this  life  is  becoming  in- 
volved in  matter ;  in  evolution  it  is  unfolding  the 
powers  that  it  contains.     We  may  quote  Manu 


16  DHARMA 

wTiere  he  says  that  Ishvara  placed  His  seed  in  the 
mighty  waters.  The  Hfe  which  Ishvara  gave  was 
not  a  developed  life,  but  a  life  capable  of  develop- 
ment. Everything  exists  in  germ  at  first.  As 
the  parent  gives  his  life  to  generate  the  child,  and 
as  that  life-seed  is  built  up  through  many  combi- 
nations until  it  reaches  birth,  and  then  year  after 
year,  through  childhood,  youth,  and  manhood, 
until  maturity  is  reached,  and  the  image  of  the 
father  is  seen  again  in  the  son;  so  does  the 
Eternal  Father,  when  He  places  the  seed  in  the 
womb  of  matter,  gives  the  life,  but  it  is  not  yet 
evolved.  Then  it  begins  its  up-climbing,  bring- 
ing out  one  phase  after  another  of  the  life  that 
it  is  gradually  becoming  able  to  express. 

As  we  study  the  Universe,  we  find  that  its  va- 
rieties differ  in  their  age.  This  is  a  thought 
which  bears  upon  our  problem.  This  world  was 
not  brought  into  its  present  condition  by  one 
creative  word.  Slowly  and  gradually  and  by  pro- 
longed meditation  did  Brahma  make  the  world. 
One  after  another  living  forms  came  forth.  One 
after  another  the  seeds  of  life  were  sown.  If  you 
look  at  any  universe  at  any  point  of  time,  you 
will  find  that  the  variety  of  that  universe  has 
Time  for  its  chief  factor.  The  age  of  the  devel- 
oping germ  will  mark  the  stage  at  which  that 
germ  has  arrived.  In  a  universe,  at  one  and  the 
same  time,  there  are  germs  of  various  ages  and 
stages  of  development.    There  are  germs  younger 


than  minerals,  making  what  are  called  elemental 
kingdoms.  The  developing  germs  called  the  min- 
eral kingdom  are  older  than  these.  Germs  evolv- 
ing as  the  vegetable  world  are  older  than  those 
of  the  mineral,  that  is,  they  have  a  longer  stretch 
of  evolution  behind  them ;  the  animals  are  germs 
with  a  yet  longer  past,  and  the  germs  we  call 
humanity  have  the  longest  past  of  all. 

Each  great  class  has  this  diversity  as  to  its 
beginning  in  time.  So  also  the  separated  indi- 
vidual life  in  one  man — not  the  essential  life,  but 
the  individual  and  separated  life — is  different 
from  that  of  another,  and  we  differ  in  the  age  of 
our  bodies.  The  life  is  one — one  life  in  all;  but 
it  is  infolded  at  different  stages  of  time,  as  re- 
gards the  starting-point  of  the  seed  that  there  is 
growing.  You  should  grasp  that  idea  clearly. 
When  a  universe  comes  to  its  ending,  there  will 
be  present  in  it  entities  at  every  stage  of  growth. 
I  have  already  said  that  world  is  linked  to  world, 
and  universe  linked  to  universe.  Some  units  at 
the  beginning  will  be  at  an  early  stage  of  evolu- 
tion ;  some  will  be  ready  to  expand  ere  long  into 
the  consciousness  of  God.  In  the  Universe, 
when  its  life-period  is  over,  there  will  be  all  the 
differences  of  growth  dependent  upon  differences 
in  time.  There  is  one  life  in  all,  but  the  stage  of 
enfoldment  of  a  particular  life  depends  upon  the 
time  through  which  it  has  been  separately  evolv- 
ing.   There  you  grasp  the  very  root  of  our  prob- 


18  DHARMA 

lem — one  life,  undying,  eternal,  infinite  as  to  its 
source  and  goal;  but  that  life  manifesting  itself 
in  different  grades  of  evolution,  and  at  different 
stages  of  unfoldment,  different  amounts  of  its 
inherent  powers  showing  forth  according  to  the 
age  of  the  separated  life.  Those  are  the  two 
thoughts  to  grasp,  and  then  you  can  take  the 
other  portion  of  the  definition  of  Dharma. 

Dharma  may  now  be  defined  as  the  ''inner 
nature  of  a  thing  at  any  given  stage  of  evolution, 
and  the  law  of  the  next  stage  of  its  unfolding" — 
the  nature  at  the  point  it  has  reached  in  unfold- 
ing, and  then  the  law  which  brings  about  its  next 
stage  of  unfolding.  The  nature  itself  marks  out 
the  point  in  evolution  it  has  reached ;  then  comes 
what  it  must  do  in  order  to  evolve  further  along 
its  road.  Take  those  two  thoughts  together,  and 
then  you  will  understand  why  perfection  must 
be  reached  by  following  one's  own  Dharma.  My 
Dharma  is  the  stage  of  evolution  which  my  na- 
ture has  reached  in  unfolding  the  seed  of  divine 
life  which  is  myself,  plus  the  law  of  life  accord- 
ing to  which  the  nevt  stage  is  to  be  performed  by 
me.  It  belongs  to  this  separated  self.  I  must 
know  the  stage  of  my  growth,  and  I  must  know 
the  law  which  will  enable  me. to  grow  further; 
then  I  know  my  Dharma,  and  by  following  that 
Dharma,  I  am  going  towards  perfection. 

It  is  clear,  then,  realising  what  this  means, 
why  we  should  each  of  us  study  this  present  con- 


DIFFERENCES  19 

dition  and  this  next  stage.  If  we  do  not  know 
the  present  stage,  we  must  be  ignorant  of  the  next 
stage  which  we  should  aim  at,  and  we  may  be 
going  against  our  Dharma  and  thus  delaying  our 
evolution.  Or,  knowing  both,  we  may  work  with 
our  Dharma  and  quicken  our  evolution.  Here 
comes  a  great  pit-fall.  We  see  that  a  thing  is 
good,  noble,  and  great,  and  we  long  to  accomplish 
in  ourselves  that  thing.  Is  it  for  us  the  next 
stage  of  evolution  ?  Is  it  the  thing  which  the  law 
of  our  unfolding  life  demands,  in  order  that  that 
life  may  unfold  harmoniously?  Our  immediate 
aim  is  not  that  which  is  best  in  itself,  but  that 
which  is  best  for  us  in  our  present  stage,  and 
carries  us  one  step  onward.  Take  a  child.  There 
is  no  doubt  that  if  you  take  a  woman-child,  she 
has  before  her  a  future  nobler,  higher,  and  more 
beautiful  than  the  present  when  she  is  playing 
with  her  dolls ;  she  will  be  a  mother  with  a  baby 
in  her  arms  instead  of  a  doll;  for  that  is  the 
ideal  of  perfect  womanhood — the  mother  with 
the  child.  But  while  that  is  the  ideal  of  a  per- 
fect woman,  to  grasp  at  that  ideal  before  the 
time  is  ripe  will  do  harm  and  not  good.  Every- 
thing must  come  in  its  proper  time  and  place. 
If  that  mother  is  to  be  developed  to  the  perfec- 
tion of  womanhood,  and  is  to  be  the  mother  of  a 
family,  healthy,  strong,  able  to  bear  the  pressure 
of  the  great  life-stream,  then  there  must  be  the 
period  when  that  child  must  play  with  her  dolls, 
must  learn  lessons,  must  develop  the  body.     But 


20  DHARMA 

if,  thinking  that  motherhood  is  higher  and  nobler 
than  play,  that  motherhood  should  be  grasped 
before  its  time,  and  a  child  be  born  from  a  child, 
the  babe  suffers,  the  mother  suffers,  the  nation 
suffers;  and  this  because  the  season  has  not 
been  regarded,  the  law  of  unfolding  life  is  vio- 
lated. All  sorts  of  suffering  arise  from  grasping 
the  fruit  ere  the  fruit  is  ripe. 

I  take  that  example  because  it  is  a  striking  one. 
It  will  help  you  to  see  why  our  own  Dharma  is 
better  for  us  tTian  the  well-executed  Dharma  of 
another  that  is  not  in  the  line  of  our  unfolding 
life.  That  lofty  post  may  be  for  us  in  the  future, 
but  the  time  must  come,  the  fruit  must  ripen. 
Pluck  it  ere  it  is  ripe,  and  your  teeth  are  set  on 
edge.  Let  it  remain  on  the  tree,  obeying  the 
law  of  time  and  sequential  evolution,  and  the 
soul  will  grow  according  to  the  power  of  an  end- 
less life. 

That  then  gives  us  another  key  to  the  problem 
— function  is  in  relation  to  power.  Function 
grasped  before  power  is  developed  is  mischiev- 
ous in  the  extreme  to  the  organism.  So  we 
learn  the  lessons  of  patience  and  of  waiting  on 
the  Good  Law.  You  might  judge  the  progress 
of  a  man  by  his  willingness  to  work  with  nature 
and  to  submit  to  the  law.  That  is  why  Dharma 
is  spoken  of  as  law,  and  sometimes  as  duty ;  for 
both  these  ideas  grow  out  of  the  root-thought 
that  it  is  the  inner  nature  at  a  given  stage  of 


DIIf^ERE:NCE:S  21 

evolution  and  the  law  of  the  next  stage  of  its 
development.  This  explains  why  morality  is  rel- 
ative, why  duty  must  differ  for  every  soul,  ac- 
cording to  the  stage  of  its  evolution.  When  we 
come  to  apply  this  to  questions  of  right  and 
wrong,  we  shall  find  that  we  can  solve  some  of 
the  subtlest  problems  of  morality  by  dealing  with 
them  on  this  principle.  In  a  conditioned  universe, 
absolute  right  and  wrong  are  not  to  be  found,  but 
only  relative  rights  and  wrongs.  The  absolute  is 
in  Ishvara  alone,  where  it  will  for  ever  be  found. 
Differences  are  thus  necessary  for  our  condi- 
tioned consciousness.  We  think  by  differences, 
we  feel  by  differences,  and  we  know  by  differ- 
ences. It  is  only  by  differences  that  we  know 
that  we  are  living  and  thinking  men.  Unity 
makes  on  consciousness  no  impression.  Differ- 
ences and  diversities — those  are  the  things  which 
make  the  growth  of  consciousness  possible.  The 
unconditioned  consciousness  is  beyond  our  think- 
ing. We  can  only  think  within  the  limits  of  the 
separated  and  the  conditioned. 

We  can  now  see  how  differences  in  nature 
come  to  be,  how  the  time  factor  comes  in,  and 
how,  though  all  have  the  same  nature  and  will 
reach  the  same  goal,  yet  there  are  differences  in 
the  stages  of  manifestation,  and  therefore  in  the 
laws  appropriate  for  every  stage.  That  is  what 
we  need  to  grasp  tonight,  before  we  deal  with 
the  complex  problem,  how  this  inner  nature  de- 


22  DHARMA 

velops.  Truly  difficult  is  the  subject,  yet  the 
mysteries  of  the  path  of  action  may  be  cleared 
for  us  as  we  grasp  the  underlying  law,  as  we 
recognise  the  principle  of  the  unfolding  life. 

May  He,  who  gave  Dharma  to  India  as  her 
keynote,  illuminate  with  His  unfolding  and  im- 
mortal life,  with  His  light,  effulgent  and  un- 
changeable, these  dark  minds  of  ours  that  dimly 
try  to  grasp  His  law;  for  only  as  His  blessing 
falls  upon  the  suppliant  seeker,  will  His  law  be 
understood  by  the  mind,  will  His  law  be  en- 
graven in  the  heart. 


EVOLUTION 

Wk  shall  deal  this  evening  with  the  second  sec- 
tion of  the  subject  commenced  yesterday.  You 
may  remember  I  divided  the  subject  under  three 
heads,  for  the  sake  of  convenience — Differences, 
Evolution,  and  the  problem  of  Right  and  Wrong. 
Yesterday  we  studied  the  question  of  Differences 
— how  it  came  to  pass  that  different  men  had 
different  Dharmas.  I  will  venture  to  remind  you 
of  the  definition  of  Dharma  we  adopted;  that  it 
means  the  inner  nature,  marked  by  the  stage  of 
evolution,  plus  the  law  of  growth  for  the  next 
stage  of  evolution.  I  will  ask  you  to  keep  that 
definition  in  your  minds,  for  without  it  you  will 
not  be  able  to  apply  Dharma  to  what  we  are  to 
study  under  the  third  division  of  the  subject. 

Under  the  head  "Evolution"  we  are  to  study 
the  way  in  which  the  germ  of  life  evolves  to  the 
perfect  image  of  God,  remembering  that  we 
found  that  that  image  of  God  could  only  be  rep- 
resented by  the  totality  of  the  numerous  objects 
making  up  the  universe  in  their  details,  and  that 
the  perfection  of  the  individual  depended  on  the 
completeness  with  which  he  fulfilled  his  own  part 
in  the  stupendous  whole. 

Before  we  can  understand  evolution,  we  must 
find  its  spring  and  motive — a  life  which  involves 


24  DHARMA 

itself  in  matter,  before  it  evolves  complicated 
organisms  of  every  kind.  We  start  with  the 
principle  that  all  is  from  and  in  God.  Nothing 
in  the  universe  is  to  be  excluded  from  Him.  No 
life  save  His  life,  no  force  save  His  force,  no 
energy  save  His  energy,  no  forms  save  His 
forms — all  are  the  results  of  His  thought.  That 
is  our  fundamental  position.  That  is  the  ground 
on  which  we  must  stand,  daring  to  accept  every- 
thing that  it  implies,  daring  to  recognise  every- 
thing that  it  connotes.  ''The  seed  of  all  beings," 
says  Shri  Krishna,  speaking  as  the  supreme  Ish- 
vara,  ''that  am  1,  O  Arjuna !  nor  is  there  aught, 
moving  or  unmoving,  that  may  exist  bereft  of 
Me."*  Do  not  let  us  fear  to  take  that  central 
position.  Do  not,  because  of  the  imperfection  of 
the  evolving  lives,  let  us  shrink  from  any  con- 
clusion to  which  this  truth  may  lead  us. 

In  another  shloka  He  said:  "I  am  the  gam- 
bling of  the  cheat,  and  the  splendour  of  splendid 
things,  L"f  What  is  the  meaning  of  these 
words  that  sound  so  strange?  What  is  the  ex- 
planation of  this  phrase  which  appears  almost 
as  profanity?  Not  only  in  this  discourse  do  we 
find  this  position  enunciated,  but  we  find  that 
Manu  teaches  exactly  the  same  truth: — "From 
Himself  He  produces  the  universe."  The  fife 
coming  forth    from   the   Supreme  puts   on  veil 

*  Bhagavad  Gita,  x.39.  t  Bhagavad  Glta,  x.  36. 


U-r 


EVOLUTION  25 

after  veil  of  Maya,  in  which  that  life  is  to  evolve 
all  the  perfections  that  lie  latent  within  it. 

Now  the  first  question  is:  Does  not  this  life, 
which  comes  from  Ishvara,  already  contain  with- 
in itself  everything  already  developed,  every  man- 
ifested power,  every  possibility  realised  as  act- 
uality? The  answer  to  that  question,  spoken 
over  and  over  again,  in  symbols,  allegories,  and 
distinct  words,  is  "No/'  It  contains  everything 
in  potency,  but  nothing  at  first  in  manifestation. 
It  contains  everything  in  germ,  but  nothing  at 
first  as  developed  organism.  The  seed  is  that 
which  is  placed  in  the  mighty  waters  of  matter, 
the  germ  alone  is  given  forth  by  the  Life  of  the 
world.  Those  germs,  which  come  from  the  life 
of  Ishvara,  evolve — step  by  step,  stage  after 
stage,  on  one  rung  of  a  ladder  after  another — all 
the  powers  that  reside  in  the  generating  Father, 
the  name  that  Ishvara  gives  to  Himself  in  the 
Gita.  He  declares  once  more : — ''My  womb  is 
the  Mahat-Brahma ;  in  that  I  place  the  germ; 
thence  cometh  the  production  of  all  beings,  O 
Bharata.  In  whatsoever  wombs  mortals  are  pro- 
duced, O  Kaunteya,  the  Mahat-Brahma  is  their 
womb,  I  their  generating  father."*  From  that 
seed,  from  that  germ  containing  everything  in 
possibility  but  nothing  as  yet  in  manifestation — 
from  that  seed  is  to  evolve  a  life,  stage  by  stage, 
rising  higher  and  higher,  until  at  last  a  centre  of 

*  Bhagavad  Gitd,   xiv.    3-4 


26  DHARMA 

consciousness  is  formed  capable  of  expanding  to 
the  consciousness  of  Ishvara,  while  remaining  as 
a  centre  still,  with  the  power  to  come  forth  as  a 
new  Logos,  or  Ishvara,  for  the  production  of  a 
new  universe. 

Let  us  take  this  vast  sweep  of  thought  in  detail. 
Life  involved  in  matter — that  is  our  beginning. 
These  germs  of  life,  these  myriad  seeds,  or,  to 
use  the  Upanishad  phrase,  these  numberless 
sparks,  all  come  forth  from  the  one  Flame  which 
is  the  supreme  Brahman.  Qualities  are  now  to 
be  brought  out,  of  these  seeds.  Those  qualities 
are  powers,  but  powers  manifested  through  mat- 
ter. One  by  one  those  powers  will  be  brought 
out — powers  which  are  the  life  of  Ishvara  as 
veiled  in  Maya.  Slow  is  the  growth  in  the  early 
stages,  hidden  as  the  seed  underground  is  hid- 
den, when  first  it  strikes  its  root  downward,  and 
sends  its  tender  offshoot  upward  in  order  that 
later  on  the  growing  tree  may  appear.  In  silence 
germinates  this  divine  seed,  and  the  early  be- 
ginnings are  hidden  in  darkness,  like  the  roots 
under  the  ground. 

This  power  in  the  life,  or  rather  these  innu- 
merable powers  which  Ishvara  manifests  in  order 
that  the  universe  may  be,  these  myriad  powers 
are  at  first  unapparent  in  the  germ — no  sign  of 
the  mighty  possibilities,  no  trace  of  what  it  is 
hereafter  to  become.  A  word  is  spoken  as  to 
this  manifestation  in  matter,  which  throws  much 


y^'^-i^i'^,^^ 


EVOLUTION  27 

light  on  the  subject,  if  we  can  grasp  its  inner  and 
subtler  meaning.  Shri  Krishna,  speaking  of  His 
lower  Prakriti,  or  inferfor  manifestation,  says: 
"Earth,  water,  fire,  air,  ether,  Manas  and  Buddhi 
also  and  Ahankara — these  are  the  eightfold  di- 
vision of  My  Prakriti — This  the  inferior."  Then 
he  says  what  is  His  higher  Prakriti :  "Know  My 
other  Prakriti,  the  higher,  the  life-element,  O 
mighty-armed,  by  which  the  universe  is  upheld."* 
Then  a  little  later,  separated  by  many  shlokas, 
so  that  sometimes  the  connecting  link  is  missed, 
other  words  are  spoken.  "This  divine  Maya  of 
Mine,  Guna-made,  is  hard  to  pierce;  they  who 
come  to  Me  they  cross  over  this  Maya.^f  This 
Yoga-Maya  is,  truly,  hard  to  pierce ;  many  do 
not  discover  Him  involved  in  Maya,  so  hard  to 
pierce  it  is,  so  difficult  to  discover.  "Those  with- 
out Buddhi  think  of  Me,  the  unmanifest,  as  hav- 
ing manifestatf'on ;  knowing  not  My  supreme 
nature,  imperishable,  most  excellent.  Nor  am  I 
of  all  discovered,  enveloped  in  My  Yoga-Maya.""^ 
Then  He  further  declares  that  by  His  unmani- 
fested  life  it  is  that  the  universe  is  pervaded. 
The  life-element,  or  higher  Prakriti,  is  unmani- 
fested,  the  lower  Prakriti  is  manifested.  Then 
He  says :  "From  the  unmanifested  all  the  mani- 
fested stream  forth  at  the  coming  of  day ;  at  tbe 
coming  of  night  they  dissolve,  even  in  That 
called  the  unmanifest«d."t     This  occurs  over  and 

*  Bhagavad  GUa,   vii.  4,  6.  t  Bhagavad  Glta,   vii.  14. 


28  DHARMA 

over  again.  Then  further  on  He  declares: 
"Therefore  verily  there  existeth,  higher  than  that 
unmanifested,  another  unmanifested,  eternal, 
which,  in  the  destroying  of  all  beings,  is  not  de- 
stroyed.":]: There  is  a  subtle  distinction  between 
Ishvara  and  the  image  of  Himself  which  He 
sends  forth.  The  image  is  the  reflected  unmani- 
fest,  but  Himself  is  the  higher  unmanifest,  the 
eternal  that  never  is  destroyed. 

Realising  that,  we  come  to  the  drawing  out  of 
powers.  Here  we  begin  really  our  evolution. 
The  out-pouring  life  was  involved  in  matter,  in 
order  to  bring  the  seed  into  the  matter-surround- 
ed conditions  which  should  make  evolution  pos- 
sible. When^we  came  to  the  first  germinating  of 
the  seed,  our  difficulty  comes  in.  For  we  must 
throw  ourselves,  in  thought,  to  the  time  when 
there  was  no  reason  in  this  embryonic  self,  no 
imaginative  faculty,  no  memory,  no  judgment, 
none  of  the  conditioned  faculties  of  the  mind  that 
we  know;  when  all  the  life  that  was  manifested 
was  that  which  we  find  in  the  mineral  kingdom, 
with  the  lowest  conditions  of  consciousness.  The 
minerals  manifest  consciousness  by  their  attrac- 
tions and  repulsions,  by  their  holding  together  of 
particles,  by  their  affinities  for  each  other,  by 
their  repellings  of  each  other,  but  they  show  none 
of  that  consciousness  that  can  be  called  the  rec- 
ognition of  the  "I"  and  the  '^not-I." 

IBhagavad  Giti,  viii.  20. 


EVOLUTION  29 

In  every  one  of  these  lowest  forms  in  the  min- 
eral kingdom,  Ishvara's  life  is  beginning  to  un- 
fold. Not  only  is  the  germ  of  life  there  evolv- 
ing, but  He,  in  all  His  might  and  power,  is  there 
in  every  atom  of  His  universe.  His  the  moving 
life  which  makes  evolution  inevitable.  His  the 
force  expanding  gently  the  walls  of  matter,  with 
immense  patience  and  watching  love,  in  order 
that  they  may  not  break  under  the  strain.  God, 
Himself  the  Father  of  the  life,  holds  that  life 
within  Himself  as  Mother,  unfolding  the  seed 
unto  the  likeness  of  Himself,  never  impatient, 
never  hurrying,  willing  to  give  as  much  time  from 
the  countless  ages  as  the  little  germ  may  require. 
Time  is  nothing  to  Ishvara,  for  He  is  eternal,  and 
to  him  all  IS.  It  is  the  perfection  of  manifesta- 
tion that  He  seeks,  and  there  is  no  hurrying  in 
His  work.  And  we  shall  see,  later  on,  how  this 
infinite  patience  works  out.  The  man,  who  is  to 
be  the  image  of  his  Father,  shows  within  him  the 
reflection  of  the  Self  with  which  he  is  one,  and 
whence  he  came. 

The  life  is  to  be  awakened,  but  how?  By 
blows,  by  vibrations,  the  inner  essence  is  called 
into  activity.  Life  is  stirred  to  activity  by  vibra- 
tions that  touch  it  from  outside.  These  myriad 
seeds  of  life,  not  yet  conscious  of  themselves, 
matter-enveloped,  are  thrown  against  each  other 
in  the  myriad  processes  of  nature;  but  "nature'' 
is  only  the  garment  of  God,  is  only  the  lowest 


30  PHARM  A 

manifestation  in  which  He  shows  Himself  on  the 
material  plane.  These  forms  strike  against  each 
other,  shaking  thus  the  outer  shells  of  matter 
in  which  the  life  is  involved,  and  the  life  within 
gives  a  quiver  as  the  blow  is  delivered. 

Now  the  nature  of  the  blow  is  of  no  import- 
ance. All  that  is  important  is  that  the  blow 
shall  be  strong.  Any  experience  is  useful.  Any- 
thing which  strikes  that  shell  so  forcibly,  ihat 
the  life  within  quivers  in  response  is  all  that  is 
wanted  at  first.  The  life  within  must  be  made  to 
quiver.  That  will  awaken  some  dawning  power 
in  the  life.  At  first  it  is  only  a  quiver  within 
itself,  and  nothing  more  than  a  quiver,  with  no 
result  on  its  outer  shell.  But  as  blow  after  blow 
is  repeated,  and  vibration  after  vibration  sends 
in  its  earthquake  shocks,  the  life  within  sends 
out,  through  its  own  enveloping  shell,  a  thrill  of 
answer.  The  blow  has  provoked  an  answer. 
Another  stage  is  thus  touched — the  answer  comes 
forth  from  the  hidden  life  and  goes  out  beyond 
the  shell.  This  goes  on  through  the  mineral  king- 
dom and  the  vegetable  kingdom.  In  the  vegeta- 
ble kingdom  the  answers  to  the  vibrations  caused 
by  contact  begin  to  show  a  new  power  of  the  Hfe 
— sensation.  The  Hfe  begins  to  show  out  in  itself 
what  we  call  "feeling" ;  that  is,  different  answers 
are  given  to  pleasure  and  to  pain.  Pleasure  is 
fundamentally  harmonious.  All  that  gives  pleas- 
ure is  harmonious.  All  that  gives  pain  is  dis- 
cordant.    Think   of   music.     Rhythmical   notes, 


^VOLUTION  31 

struck  together  as  a  chord,  give  to  the  ear  a  sens- 
ation of  pleasure.  But  if  you  strike  your  finger 
on  the  strings  without  paying  attention  to  the 
notes,  you  make  a  discord,  khich  gives  pain  to 
the  ear.  That  which  is  true  of  music  is  true 
everywhere.  Health  is  harmony,  disease  is  dis- 
cord. Strength  is  harmony,  weakness  is  discord. 
Beauty  is  harmony,  ugliness  is  discord.  All 
through  nature  pleasure  means  the  answer  of  a 
sentient  being  to  vibrations  that  are  harmonious 
and  rhythmical,  and  pain  means  its  answer  to 
those  that  are  discordant  and  unrhythmical.  The 
rhythmical  vibrations  make  an  outward  channel 
through  which  the  life  can  expand,  and  this  pour- 
ing forth  is  "pleasure'' ;  the  unrhythmical  close 
up  the  channels  and  frustrate  the  forthpouring, 
and  this  frustration  is  "pain."*  The  forthpour- 
ing of  life  towards  objects  is  what  we  name 
"desire'' ;  hence  pleasure  becomes  the  gratifica- 
tion of  desire.  This  difference  begins  to  make 
itself  felt  in  the  vegetable  kingdom.  A  blow 
comes  that  is  harmonious.  The  life  answers  to 
that  in  harmonious  vibrations  and  expands,  feel- 
ing in  that  expansion  "pleasure."  A  blow  comes 
that  is  a  jangle.  Life  answers  that  discordantly, 
is  checked,  and  feels  in  that  check  "pain."  The 
blows  are  given  over  and  over  again,  and  not 
until  the  repetition  has  occurred  a  myriad  times 
does  recognition  of  the  distinction  between  the 

*  The  student  should  work  out  in  detail  this  fundamental  prin- 
ciple; he  will  thereby  much  clarify  his  thoughts. 


32  DHARMA 

two  begin  to  arise  in  that  imprisoned  life.  Only 
by  making  distinctions  is  our  consciousness,  as 
at  present  constituted,  able  to  distinguish  objects 
from  each  other.  Take  a  very  common  illustra- 
tion. Let  a  piece  of  money  lie  in  the  palm  of  the 
hand  and  close  your  fingers  round  it ;  you  feel  it ; 
but  as  the  pressure  is  continued,  without  any  va- 
riation, the  sensation  of  feeling  in  the  hand  dis- 
appears and  you  do  not  know  that  your  hand  is 
not  empty.  Move  a  finger  and  you  feel  the 
money;  keep  the  hand  still,  and  the  sensation 
vanishes.  Thus  consciousness  can  only  know 
things  by  diflferences.  And  when  difference  is 
eliminated,  consciousness  ceases  to  respond. 

We  come  to  the  next  thing  which  is  manifested 
as  the  life  evolves  through  the  animal  kingdom. 
Pleasure  and  pain  are  now  acutely  felt,  and  a 
germ  of  recognition,  connecting  objects  and  sens- 
ations, begins;  we  call  it  "perception."  What 
does  this  mean  ?  It  means  that  the  life  devefops 
the  power  of  forming  a  link  between  the  object 
that  impresses  it  and  the  sensation  by  which  it 
responds  to  the  object.  When  that  dawning  life, 
contacting  an  external  object,  knows  it  as  an  ob- 
ject that  gives  pleasure  or  pain,  then  we  say  that 
the  object  is  perceived,  and  the  faculty  of  percep-. 
tion,  or  the  making  of  links  between  the  outer 
and  the  inner  worlds,  is  evolved;  when  that  is 
established,  mental  power  begins  to  germinate 
and  to  grow  within  that  organism ;  we  find  it  in 
the  higher  animals. 


SIVOLUTION  33 

Let  us  take  it  in  the  savage  man,  where  we 
shall  be  able  to  pass  more  rapidly  over  these  early 
stages.  We  find  the  consciousness  of  "F'  and 
"not-I"  slowly  establishing  itself  in  him — the  two 
going  together.  "Not-I"  touches  him,  and  "I" 
feels  it;  "not-I"  gives  him  pleasure,  and  **!" 
knows  it ;  "not-F'  gives  him  pain,  and  "F*  suf- 
fers it.  A  distinction  is  now  being  made  be- 
tween the  feeling,  thought  of  as  "I,"  and  all  that 
causes  it,  thought  of  as  "Not-I."  Here  com- 
mences intelligence,  and  the  root  of  self-con- 
sciousness is  beginning  to  develop.  That  is,  a 
centre  is  being  formed,  to -which  everything  goes 
in  and  from  which  everything  comes  out. 

I  sDoke  of  repetition  of  vibrations,  and  now 
repetition  produces  results  more  rapidly.  As 
repetition  causes  the  perception  of  pleasure-giv- 
ing objects,  the  next  stage  is  developed,  the  ex- 
pectation of  pleasure  before  the  contact  takes 
place.  The  object  is  recognised  as  one  that  has 
given  pleasure  on  previous  occasions ;  a  repetition 
of  the  pleasure  is  expected,  and  that  expectation 
is  the  dawn  of  memory  and  the  beginning  of 
imagination,  the  interweaving  of  intellect  with 
desire.  Because  the  object  has  given  pleasure 
before  it  is  expected  to  give  pleasure^  again. 
Thus  expectation  brings  into  manifestation  an- 
other germinating  quality  of  the  mind.  When  we 
have  the  recognition  of  the  object  and  the  expect- 
ation of  pleasure  from  its  return,  the  next  stage 


34  DHARMA 

IS  the  making  and  vivifying  of  a  mental  image 
of  that  object — the  memory  of  it — thus  causing 
an  outflow  of  desire,  desire  to  have  that  object, 
a  longing  for  that  object,  and  finally  a  going  forth 
in  search  of  that  object  that  gives  pleasurable 
sensation.  Thus  the  man  becomes  full  of  active 
desires.  He  desires  pleasure  and  is  moved  to 
seek  it  by  the  mind.  For  a  long  time  he  had  re- 
mained in  the  animal  stage,  when  he  would  never 
seek  for  a  thing  unless  the  actual  sensation  in  his 
inner  body  made  him  want  something  that  the 
outer  world  alone  could  satisfy.  Just  for  one 
moment  return  to  the  animal;  think  what  stirs 
the  animal  to  action.  A  craving  to  get  rid  of  an 
unpleasant  sensation.  He  feels  hunger,  he  de- 
sires food,  and  he  goes  in  search  of  it;  he  feels 
thirst,  he  desires  to  quench  it,  and  he  goes  in 
search  of  water.  Thus  he  always  goes  in  search 
of  the  object  that  will  gratify  the  desire.  Give 
him  the  gratification  of  desire  and  he  is  quiet. 
There  is  no  self-initiated  motion  in  the  animal. 
The  push  must  come  from  outside.  True,  the 
hunger  is  in  the  inner  body,  but  that  is  outside 
the  centre  of  consciousness.  The  evolution  of 
consciousness  may  be  traced  by  the  proportion 
/  which  the  outside  stimulus  to  action  bears  to  the 
self-initiated  stimulus.  The  lower  consciousness 
is  stimulated  to  activity  by  impulses  coming  from 
outside  itself.  The  higher  consciousness  is  stim- 
ulated to  activity  by  motion  initiated  within. 
Now,  as  we  deal  with  our  savage  man,  we  find 


INVOLUTION  35 

that  the  gratification  of  desire  is  the  law  of  his 
progress.  How  strange  that  sounds  to  many  of 
you.  Says  Manu :  seeking  to  get  rid  of  desires 
by  gratifying  them  is  Hke  trying  to  quench  the 
fire  by  pouring  butter  over  it.  Desire  must  be 
curbed  and  restrained.  Desire  is  to  be  extin- 
guished utterly.  This  is  most  certainly  true,  but 
only  when  a  man  has  reached  a  certain  stage  of 
evolution.  In  the  early  stages,  the  gratification 
of  desires  is  the  law  of  evolution.  If  he  does  not 
gratify  his  desires,  no  growth  for  him  is  possible. 
You  must  realise  that  at  that  stage  there  is  noth- 
ing which  can  be  called  morality.  There  is  no 
distinction  between  right  and  wrong.  Every 
desire  should  be  gratified ;  when  this  commencing 
centre  of  self-consciousness  is  seeking  to  gratify 
desires,  then  alone  it  grows.  In  this  lowest  stage 
the  Dharma  of  the  savage  man,  or  of  the  higher 
animal,  is  imposed  on  him.  He  does  not  choose ; 
his  inner  nature,  marked  by  the  development  of 
desire,  demands  gratification.  The  law  of  his 
growth  is  the  satisfaction  of  these  desires.  So 
that  the  Dharma  of  the  sava;?e  is  the  gratification 
of  every  desire.  And  you  find  in  him  no  con- 
sciousness of  right  or  wrong,  not  the  faintest 
dawning  notion  that  the  gratification  of  desires  is 
forbidden  by  some  higher  law. 

Without  that  gratification  of  desires  there  is 
no  further  growth.  All  that  growth  must  pre- 
cede the  dawning  of  reason  and  judgment  and 
the  development  of  the  higher  powers  of  memory 


36  DHARMA 

and  imagination.  All  these  things  must  be 
evolved  by  the  gratification  of  desire.  Expe- 
rience is  the  law  of  life,  it  is  the  law  of  growth. 
Unless  he  gathers  experiences  of  every  kind,  he 
cannot  know  that  he  lives  in  a  world  of  Law. 
Two  ways  does  the  law  find  for  impressing  itself 
on  man :  pleasure  when  the  Law  is  followed,  pain 
when  the  Law  is  opposed.  If  men  did  not  at  that 
early  stage  have  every  sort  of  experience,  how 
could  they  learn  of  the  existence  of  the  Law? 
How  can  discrimination  grow  between  right 
and  wrong  unless  there  is  the  experience  of  both 
good  and  evil?  A  universe  can  never  come  into 
existence  except  by  the  pairs  of  opposites,  and 
these  at  one  stage  appear  in  the  consciousness 
as  good  and  evil.  You  cannot  know  light  with- 
out darkness,  motion  without  rest,  pleasure  with- 
out pain;  so  you  cannot  know  the  good  that  is 
harmony  with  the  Law  without  knowing  the 
evil  that  is  discord  with  the  Law.  Good  and  evil 
are  a  pair  of  opposites  in  the  later  evolution  of 
man,  and  man  cannot  become  conscious  of  the 
difiference  between  them  unless  he  has  experience 
of  both. 

Now  we  come  to  a  change.  Man  has  devel- 
oped a  certain  power  of  discrimination.  Left  to 
himself  utterly,  he  would  come  to  know  in  time 
that  some  things  help  him  on,  and  that  some 
things  strengthen  him,  that  some  things  increase 
his  life;  also  that  other  things  weaken  him  and 


EVOLUTION  37 

diminish  his  life.  Experience  would  teach  him 
all  that.  Left  only  to  the  teaching  of  experience, 
he  would  come  to  know  right  from  wrong,  would 
identify  the  pleasure-giving  that  increased  life 
with  the  right,  and  the  pain-giving  that  dimin- 
ished life  with  the  wrong,  and  would  thus  reach 
the  conclusion  that  all  happiness  and  growth  lay 
in  obeying  the  Law.  But  it  would  take  a  very 
long  time  for  this  dawning  intelligence  to  com- 
pare together  experiences  of  pleasure  and  pain, 
and  the  confusing  experiences  in  which  that 
which  at  first  gave  pleasure  became  painful  by 
excess,  and  then  to  deduce  from  them  the  prin- 
ciple of  law.  It  would  be  a  very  long  time  before 
he  could  put  innumerable  experiences  together, 
and  deduce  from  them  the  idea  that  this  thing 
is  right,  and  that  thing  is  wrong.  But  he  is  not 
left  unaided  to  make  that  deduction.  There  come 
to  him,  from  past  worlds.  Intelligences  more 
highly  evolved  than  his  own.  Teachers  who  come 
to  help  on  his  evolution,  to  train  his  growth,  to 
tell  him  of  the  existence  of  a  law  determining 
that  which  will  bring  about  his  more  rapid  evolu- 
tion, increasing  his  happiness,  intelligence,  and 
strength.  In  fact.  Revelation  from  the  mouth  of 
a  Teacher  quickens  evolution,  and  instead  of  man 
being  left  to  the  slow  teaching  of  experience,  the 
expression  of  the  law  from  the  mouth  of  a  supe- 
rior is  made  to  assist  his  growth. 

The  Teacher  comes  and  says  to  this  dawning 


38  DHARMA 

intelligence :  "If  you  kill  that  man,  you  are  do- 
ing an  action  that  I  forbid  on  divine  authority. 
That  action  is  wrong.  It  will  bring  misery." 
The  Teacher  says :  "It  is  right  to  help  the  starv- 
ing ;  that  starving  man  is  your  brother ;  feed  him, 
do  not  let  him  starve;  share  with  him  what  you 
have.  That  action  is  right,  and  if  you  obey  that 
law  it  will  be  well  with  you."  Rewards  of  ac- 
tions are  held  out  to  attract  the  dawning  intelli- 
gence towards  good,  and  punishments  and  threats 
to  warn  him  from  wrong.  Earthly  prosperity  is 
joined  with  obedience  of  law,  earthly  misery  with 
disobedience  to  law.  This  announcement  of  the 
law  that  misery  follows  on  that  which  the  law 
forbids,  and  happiness  on  that  which  the  law 
commands,  stimulates  the  dawning  intelligence. 
He  disregards  the  law,  the  penalty  follows,  and 
he  suffers ;  and  he  says :  "The  Teacher  told  me 
so."  Memory  of  a  command  proved  by  expe- 
rience makes  an  impression  on  the  consciousness 
far  more  quickly  and  more  strongly  than  does 
experience  alone  without  the  revealed  law.  By 
this  declaration  of  what  the  learned  call  the  fund- 
amental principles  of  morality,  namely,  that  cer- 
tain classes  of  actions  retard  evolution  and  other 
classes  of  actions  quicken  evolution — ^by  this 
declaration  intelligence  is  immensely  stimulated. 
If  man  will  not  obey  the  law  declared,  then  he 
is  left  to  the  hard  teaching  of  experience.  If  he 
says:  "I  will  have  that  thing,  though  the  law 
forbid  it,"  then  he  is  left  to  the  stern  teaching 


INVOLUTION  39 

of  pain,  and  the  whip  of  suffering  teaches  the 
lesson  that  he  would  not  learn  from  the  lips  of 
love. 

How  often  that  happens  now.  How  often  a 
young  man,  argumentative  and  self-conceited, 
will  not  listen  to  law,  will  not  listen  to  the  expe- 
rienced, pays  no  regard  to  the  training  of  the 
past.  Desire  conquers  intelligence.  His  father 
is  heart-broken.  ''My  son  is  plunged  into  vice,'' 
says  he ;  ''my  son  is  going  into  evil.  I  instructed 
him  in  right  conduct,  and  see,  he  has  become  a 
Har;  my  heart  is  broken  for  my  son."  But  Ish- 
vara,  the  Father  more  loving  than  any  earthly 
father,  has  patience.  For  He  is  in  the  son  as 
much  as  in  the  father.  He  is  in  him  teaching 
him  a  lesson,  in  the  only  way  by  which  that  soul 
is  willing  to  learn.  He  would  not  learn  by  au- 
thority or  by  example.  At  all  hazards  that 
desire  for  the  evil  thing  which  is  stopping  his 
evolution  must  be  rooted  out  of  his  nature.  If 
he  will  not  learn  by  gentleness,  let  him  then  learn 
by  pain.  Let  him  learn  by  experience;  let  him 
plunge  into  vice,  and  reap  the  bitter  pang  that 
comes  from  trampling  on  the  law.  There  is  time ; 
he  will  learn  the  lesson  surely  though  painfully. 
God  is  in  hirn,  and  still  He  lets  him  go  that  way ; 
nay,  He  even  opens  the  way  that  he  may  go  along 
it;  when  he  demands  it,  the  answer  of  God  is: 
"My  child,  if  you  will  not  listen,  take  your  own 
way,  and  learn  your  lesson  in  the  fire  of  your 


40  DHARMA 

agony  and  in  the  bitterness  of  your  degradation. 
I  am  with  you  still,  watching  over  you  and  your 
actions,  the  Fulfiller  of  the  law  and  the  Father 
of  your  life.  You  shall  learn  in  the  mire  of 
degradation  that  cessation  of  desire  which  you 
would  not  learn  from  wisdom  and  from  love." 
That  is  why  He  says  in  the  GUd:  "I  am  the 
gambhng  of  the  cheat."  For  He  is  always  pa- 
tiently working  for  the  glorious  end,  by  rough 
ways  if  we  will  not  walk  in  smooth.  We,  un- 
able to  understand  that  infinite  compassion,  mis- 
read Him,  but  He  works  on  with  the  patience 
of  eternity,  in  order  that  desire  may  be  utterly 
uprooted,  and  His  son  may  be  perfect  as  his 
Father  in  heaven  is  perfect. 

Let  us  go  to  the  next  stage.  There  are  certain 
great  laws  of  growth  that  are  general.  We  have 
learned  to  look  upon  certain  things  as  right  and 
upon  others  as  wrong.  Every  nation  has  its  own 
standard  of  morality.  Only  a  few  know  how  that 
standard  was  formed,  and  where  that  standard 
fails.  For  ordinary  affairs  the  standard  is  good 
enough.  The  experience  of  the  race  has  found 
out,  under  the  guidance  of  law,  that  some  actions 
hold  back  evolution  while  others  press  it  forward. 
The  great  law  of  the  orderly  evolution  that  fol- 
lows the  earlier  stages  is  the  law  of  the  four 
successive  steps  in  later  human  growth.  This 
comes  after  a  man  has  reached  a  certain  point, 
after  the  preliminary  training  is  over.    It  is  found 


EVOLUTION  41 

in  every  nation  at  a  certain  stage  of  evolution, 
but  was  proclaimed  in  ancient  India  as  the  defi- 
nite law  of  evolving  life,  as  the  sequential  order 
of  the  growth  of  the  soul,  as  the  underlying  prin- 
ciple by  which  Dharma  may  be  understood  and 
followed.  Dharma,  remember,  includes  two 
things — the  inner  nature  at  the  point  it  has 
reached,  and  the  law  of  its  growth  for  the  next 
stage.  For  every  man  Dharma  is  to  be  declared. 
The  first  Dharma  is  that  of  service.  No  matter 
in  what  land  the  souls  may  be  born,  when  they 
have  passed  through  the  earlier  stages,  then  their 
inner  nature  demands  the  discipline  of  service, 
and  that  they  should  learn  by  service  the  qualities 
that  are  needed  for  growth  into  the  next  stage. 
At  this  stage  the  power  of  independent  action  is 
very  limited.  At  this  comparatively  early  stage 
there  is  more  tendency  to  yield  to  impulse  from 
without  than  to  show  a  developed  judgment 
choosing  a  particular  course  from  within.  In 
this  class  are  seen  all  those  who  belong  to  the 
serving  type.  Remember  those  wise  words  of 
Bhishma,  that  if  the  characteristics  of  a  Brah- 
mana  are  found  in  a  Shiidra  and  are  not  found 
in  a  Brahmana,  then  that  Brahmana  is  not  a 
Brahmana  and  that  Shudra  is  not  a  Shudra.  In 
other  words,  the  characteristics  of  the  inner  na- 
ture mark  out  the  stage  of  that  soul's  growth,  and 
stamp  it  as  belonging  to  one  great  natural  divi- 
sion or  another.  Where  the  power  of  initiation  is 
small,  where  the  judgment  is  untrained,  where 


42  DHARMA 

the  reason  is  poor  and  little  developed,  where  the 
Self  is  unconscious  of  his  high  destiny,  where  he 
is  chiefly  moved  by  desire,  where  he  is  still  to 
grow  by  the  gratification  of  most  but  not  all 
desires,  that  man  is  one  whose  Dharma  is  service, 
and  only  by  performing  that  Dharma  can  he  fol- 
low the  law  of  growth  by  which  he  will  reach 
perfection.  And  such  a  man  is  a  Shudra,  by 
whatever  name  he  may  be  called  in  different 
countries.  In  ancient  India,  the  souls  bearing 
the  characteristics  of  this  type  were  born  into 
the  classes  that  suited  them,  for  Devas  guided 
their  births.  In  this  age,  however,  confusion  has 
supervened. 

What  is  the  law  of  growth  in  that  stage? 
Obedience,  devotion,  fidelity.  That  is  the  law  of 
growth  for  that  stage.  Obedience  because  the 
judgment  is  not  developed.  He  whose  Dharma  is 
service  has  to  blindly  obey  the  one  to  whom  he 
renders  service.  His  not  to  challenge  the  order 
of  his  superior,  nor  his  to  see  that  the  com- 
manded action  is  a  wise  one.  He  has  received 
an  order  to  do  a  thing,  and  his  Dharma  is  obedi- 
ence, by  which  alone  he  will  be  able  to  learn. 
People  hesitate  at  that  teaching,  but  it  is  true.  I 
will  take  an  example  that  will  strike  you  most 
forcibly — that  of  an  army,  of  a  private  soldier 
under  the  command  of  his  captain.  If  every 
private  soldier  were  to  use  his  own  judgment  as 
to  the  orders  that  came  from  the  general,  and  if 


^VOLUTION  43 

he  were  to  say :  '*This  is  not  well,  for  in  my  judg- 
ment that  is  the  place  where  I  shall  be  more  serv- 
iceable/' what  would  become  of  the  army?  The 
private  soldier  is  shot  if  he  disobeys,  for  his  duty 
is  obedience.  When  your  judgment  is  feeble, 
when  you  are  chiefly  moved  by  impulses  from 
without,  when  you  cannot  be  happy  without 
noise  and  clatter  and  jangle  around  you,  then 
your  Dharma  is  service,  wherever  you  may  be 
born,  and  you  are  happy  if  your  karma  leads  you 
to  a  position  where  discipline  will  train  you. 

So  the  man  learns  to  prepare  for  the  next 
stage.  And  the  duty  of  all  those  who  are  in  posi- 
tions of  authority  is  to  remember  that  the 
Dharma  of  a  Shudra  is  fulfilled  when  he  is  obedi- 
ent and  faithful  to  his  master,  and  they  should 
not  expect  one  in  that  grade  of  evolution  to  show 
forth  the  higher  virtues.  To  demand  from  him 
cheerfulness  in  suffering,  purity  of  thought,  and 
the  power  to  suffer  hardships  ungrudgingly,  is 
to  demand  too  much;  for  when  we  ourselves 
often  do  not*  show  these  qualities,  how  can  we 
expect  them  from  those  whom  we  call  the  lower 
classes  ?  The  duty  of  the  higher  is  to  show  forth 
the  higher  virtues,  but  he  has  no  right  to  demand 
them  from  his  inferiors.  If  the  servant  shows 
fidelity  and  obedience,  his  Dharma  is  perfectly 
performed,  and  other  faults  should  not  be  pun- 
ished, but  should  be  gently  pointed  out  by  the 
master,  for  by  so  doing  he  is  training  that 
younger  soul;  for  a  child  soul  should  be  gently 


44  DHARMA 

led  along  the  path,  and  its  growth  should  not  be 
stunted  by  harsh  treatment  as  we  generally 
stunt  it. 

i-  Then  the  soul,  having  learned  this  lesson  in 

^  many  births,  by  learning  the  lesson  has  obeyed 

the  law  of  growth,  and  by  following  his  Dharma 
has  approached  the  next  stage,  in  which  he  is  to 
learn  the  first  use  of  power  by  acquiring  wealth. 
Then  the  Dharma  of  that  soul  is  to  evolve  all 
the  qualities  which  are  now  ready  for  evolution, 
and  are  brought  out  by  leading  the  life  which  the 
inner  nature  demands,  i.  e.,  by  taking  up  some 
^^  occupation  which  the  next  stage  requires,  the 
stage  where  it  is  a  merit  to  acquire  wealth.  For 
the  Dharma  of  a  Vaishya  all  over  the  world  is  to 
,.  evolve  certain  definite  faculties.  The  faculty  of 
justice,  just  dealing  between  man  and  man,  the 
not  swerving  aside  at  the  mere  prompting  of  sen- 
timent, the  working  out  of  the  qualities  of 
shrewdness,  keenness,  and  holding  a  just  balance 
between  contending  duties,  fair  payment  in  fair 
exchange,  acuteness  of  insight,  frugality,  absence 
of  waste  and  extravagance,  the  exaction  from 
every  servant  of  the  service  that  should  be  given, 
the  payment  of  just  wages  but  only  of  just  wages 
— these  are  the  characteristics  that  fit  him  for 
higher  growth.  It  is  a  merit  in  the  Vaishya  to 
be  frugal,  to  refuse  to  pay  more  than  he  should, 
to  insist  on  a  just  and  fair  exchange.  All  these 
things  bring  out  qualities  that  are  wanted  and 


^VOLUTION  45 

will  conduce  to  future  perfection.  In  their 
early  stages  they  are  sometimes  unlovely,  but 
from  the  higher  standpoint  they  are  the  Dharma 
of  that  man,  and  if  it  be  not  fulfilled,  there  will 
be  weakness  in  the  character,  which  will  come 
out  later  and  injure  his  evolution.  Liberality  is 
indeed  the  law  of  his  further  growth,  but  not  the 
liberality  of  carelesness  or  over-payment.  He  is 
to  gather  wealth  by  the  exercise  of  frugality  and 
strictness,  and  then  to  spend  that  wealth  on  noble 
objects  and  on  learned  men,  to  bestow  it  upon 
worthy  and  well-considered  schemes  for  the  pub- 
lic good.  To  gather  with  energy  and  shrewd- 
ness, and  to  spend  with  careful  discrimination 
and  liberality,  that  is  the  Dharma  of  a  Vaishya, 
the  outcome  of  his  nature  and  the  law  of  his 
further  growth. 

fc^yThis  leads  us  to  the  next  stage,  that  of  the 
f"  rulers  and  warriors,  of  battles  and  struggles, 
where  the  inner  nature  is  combative,  aggressive, 
quarrelsome,  standing  on  its  own  ground  and 
ready  to  protect  everyone  in  the  enjoyment  of 
what  is  right.  Courage,  fearlessness,  splendid 
generosity,  throwing  away  of  Hfe  in  the  defence 
of  the  weak  and  in  the  discharging  of  one's  du- 
ties— that  is  the  Dharma  of  the  Kshattriya.  His 
duty  is  to  protect  what  is  given  him;  in  charge 
against  all  aggression  from  without.  It  may  cost 
him  life,  but  never  mind  that.  He  must  do  his 
duty.     To  protect,  to  guard,  that  is  his  work. 


46  DHARMA 

His  strength  is  to  be  a  barrier  between  the  weak 
and  the  oppressive,  between  the  helpless  and 
those  who  would  trample  them  under  foot. 
Right  for  him  the  following  of  war  and  the 
struggle  in  the  jungle  with  the  wild  beast.  Be- 
cause you  do  not  understand  what  evolution  is 
and  what  the  law  of  growth,  you  stand  aghast 
at  the  horrors  of  war.  But  the  great  Rishis,  who 
made  this  order,  knew  that  a  weak  soul  can  never 
attain  perfection.  You  cannot  get  strength  with- 
out courage,  and  firmness  and  courage  cannot  be 
got  without  the  facing  of  danger,  and  the  readi- 
ness to  throw  away  life  when  duty  demands  the 
sacrifice. 

Our  sentimental,  weak-kneed,  pseudo-moral- 
ist shrinks  from  that  teaching.  But  he  forgets 
that  in  every  nation  there  are  souls  that  need  that 
training,  and  whose  further  evolution  depends 
upon  their  success  in  attaining  it.  I  appeal  again 
to  Bhishma,  the  incarnation  of  Dharma,  and  I 
remember  what  he  said,  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
Kshattriya  to  slay  thousands  of  his  enemies,  if 
his  duty  in  protection  lies  in  that  direction.  War 
is  terrible,  fighting  is  shocking,  our  hearts  revolt 
from  it,  and  we  shrink  before  the  anguish  of 
mutilated  and  mangled  bodies.  To  a  great  extent 
this  is  because  we  are  utterly  deluded  by  form. 
The  one  use  of  the  body  is  to  enable  the  life  with- 
in it  to  evolve.  But  the  moment  it  has  learned  all 
that  that  body  can  give  it,  let  the  body  break 


^VOLUTION  47 

away,  and  let  the  soul  go  free  to  take  a  new  body- 
that  will  enable  it  to  manifest  higher  powers.  We 
cannot  pierce  the  Maya  of  the  Lord.  These  bod- 
ies of  ours  may  perish,  time  after  time,  but  every 
death  is  a  resurrection  to  higher  life.  This  body 
itself  is  nothing  more  than  a  garment  which  the 
soul  puts  on,  and  no  wise  man  would  like  the  body 
to  be  eternal.  We  clothe  our  child  in  a  small  coat 
and  change  it  when  the  child  grows.  But  will  you 
make  the  coat  of  iron,  and  cramp  the  growth  of 
the  child?  So  this  body  is  our  coat.  Shall  it 
be  then  of  iron  that  it  should  never  perish  ?  Does 
not  the  soul  require  a  new  body  for  its  higher 
growth  ?  Let  then  the  body  go.  This  is  the  hard 
lesson  the  Kshattriya  learns,  and  so  he  throws 
away  his  bodily  life,  and,  in  this  throwing  away, 
his  soul  gains  the  power  of  self-sacrifice,  he  learns 
endurance,  fortitude,  courage,  resource,  devotion 
to  an  ideal,  loyalty  to  a  cause,  and  he  pays  his 
body  gladly  as  the  price  for  these,  the  immortal 
soul  rising  triumphant  and  preparing  for  a  nobler 
life. 

Then  there  comes  the  last  stage,  the  stage  of 
teaching.  The  Dharma  of  that  stage  is  to  teach. 
The  soul  must  have  assimilated  all  lower  experi- 
ence before  he  can  teach.  If  he  had  not  been 
through  all  those  previous  stages,  and  obtained 
wisdom  through  obedience  and  exertion  and  com- 
bat, how  could  he  be  a  teacher  ?  He  has  reached 
the  stage  of  evolution  where  the  natural  expan- 
sion of  his  inner  nature  is  to  teach  his  more  ignor- 


48  DHARMA 

ant  brethren.  These  qualities  are  not  artificial. 
They  are  inborn  qualities  of  nature,  and  they 
show  themselves  wherever  they  exist.  A  Brah- 
mana  is  not  a  Brahmana  if  he  is  not  a  teacher  by 
his  Dharma.  He  has  gained  knowledge  and  a 
favourable  birth  in  order  to  make  him  a  teacher. 

The  law  of  his  growth  is  knowledge,  piety, 
forgiveness,  being  the  friend  of  every  creature. 
How  the  Dharma  is  changed !  But  he  could  not 
be  the  friend  of  every  creature  if  he  had  not 
learned  to  throw  his  life  away  when  duty  called, 
and  the  very  battle  trained  the  Kshattriya  to  be- 
come at  a  later  stage  the  friend  of  every  creature. 
What  is  the  law  of  a  Brahmana's  growth?  He 
must  never  take  offence.  He  must  never  lose 
self-control.  He  must  never  be  hasty.  He  must 
always  be  gentle:  otherwise  he  falls  from  his 
Dharma.  He  must  be  all  purity.  He  must  never 
lead  an  evil  life.  He  must  detach  himself  from 
worldly  things,  if  they  have  a  hold  upon  him.  Do 
I  hold  up  an  impossible  standard?  I  but  speak 
the  law  as  the  great  ones  have  spoken  it,  and  I 
but  feeblv  re-echo  their  words.  The  law  has  laid 
down  the  Standard,  and  who  shall  dare  to  lower 
it  ?  When  Shri  Krishna  Himself  proclaimed  that 
as  the  Dharma  of  the  Brahmana,  that  must  be  the 
law  of  his  growth,  and  the  end  of  his  growth  is 
liberation.  For  him  is  liberation,  but  only  if  he 
shows  out  the  qualities  that  he  ought  to  have 
reached,  and  follows  the  lofty  ideal  that  is  his 


EVOLUTION  49 

Dharma.     These  are  the  only  justifications  for 
the  name  of  Brahmana. 

This  ideal  is  so  beautiful  that  all  earnest  and 
thoughtful  men  desire  to  reach  it.  But  wisdom 
steps  in  and  says :  *' Yes,  it  shall  be  yours,  but  you 
must  earn  it.  You  must  grow,  you  must  labour ; 
truly  it  is  yours,  but  it  is  not  yours  until  you  have 
paid  the  price.''  Important  is  it  for  our  own 
growth,  and  the  growth  of  the  nations,  that  this 
distinction  in  Dharmas  should  be  understood  as 
depending  upon  the  stage  of  evolution,  and  that 
we  should  be  able  to  discriminate  our  own  Dhar- 
ma by  the  characteristics  which  we  find  in  our 
nature.  If  we  set  before  an  unprepared  soul  an 
ideal  so  lofty  that  it  does  not  move  him,  we  check 
his  evolution.  If  you  give  to  a  peasant  the  ideal 
of  a  Brahmana,  you  are  placing  before  him  an 
impossible  ideal,  and  the  result  is  that  he  does 
nothing.  When  you  tell  a  man  a  thing  too  high 
for  him,  that  man  knows  that  you  have  been  talk- 
ing nonsense,  for  you  have  commanded  him  to 
perform  that  which  he  has  no  power  to  perform ; 
your  folly  has  placed  before  him  motives  which 
do  not  move  him.  But  wise  were  the  teachers  of 
old.  They  gave  the  children  sugar  plums,  and 
later  the  higher  lessons.  But  we  are  so  clever, 
that  we  appeal  to  the  lowest  sinner  by  mo- 
tives which  can  stir  only  the  highest  saint,  and 
thus,  instead  of  furthering,  we  check  his  evolu- 
tion.    Place  your  own  ideal  as  high  as  you  can 


50  DHARMA 

set  it;  but  do  not  impose  your  ideal  upon  your 
brother,  the  law  of  whose  growth  may  be  entirely 
different  from  yours.  Learn  the  tolerance  which 
helps  each  man  to  do  in  his  place  what  is  good 
for  him  to  do,  and  what  his  nature  impels  him 
to  do.  Leaving  him  in  his  place,  help  him. 
Learn  that  tolerance  which  is  repelled  by  none, 
however  sinful,  which  sees  in  every  man  a  divin- 
ity working,  and  stands  beside  him  to  help  him. 
Instead  of  standing  off  on  some  high  peak  of  spir- 
ituality and  preaching  a  doctrine  of  self-sacrifice, 
which  is  utterly  beyond  his  comprehension,  in 
teaching  his  young  soul,  use  his  higher  selfishness 
to  destroy  the  lower.  Do  not  tell  the  peasant  that 
when  he  is  not  industrious  he  is  falling  from  the 
ideal;  but  tell  that  man:  "There  is  your  wife; 
you  love  that  woman;  she  is  starving.  Set  to 
work  and  feed  her."  By  that  motive,  which  is 
certainly  selfish,  you  do  more  to  raise  that  man 
than  if  you  preach  to  him  about  Brahman,  the 
unconditioned  and  unmanifest.  Learn  what 
Dharma  means,  and  you  will  be  of  service  to  the 
world. 

I  do  not  wish  to  lower  by  one  tiniest  fraction 
your  ideal;  you  cannot  aim  too  high.  The  fact 
that  you  can  conceive  it  makes  it  yours,  but  does 
not  make  it  that  of  your  less  developed  younger 
brother.  Aim  at  the  loftiest  you  are  able  to  think 
and  to  love.  But,  in  aiming,  consider  the  means 
as  well  as  the  end,  your  powers  as  well  as  your 
aspirations.     Make  your  aspirations  high.    They 


EVOLUTION  51 

are  the  germs  of  powers  in  your  next  life. 
Through  ever  keeping  the  ideal  high  you  will 
grow  towards  it,  and  what  you  long  for  to-day 
you  shall  be  in  the  days  to  come.  But  have  the 
tolerance  of  knowledge,  and  the  patience  which 
is  divine.  Each  thing  in  its  own  place  is  in  its 
right  place.  As  the  higher  nature  develops  you 
can  appeal  to  the  qualities  of  self-sacrifice,  purity 
and  utter  self-devotion,  to  the  will  firmly  fixed  on 
God.  That  is  the  ideal  for  the  highest  to  accomp- 
lish. Let  us  climb  towards  it  gradually,  lest  we 
fail  to  reach  it  at  all. 


I 


RIGHT  AND  WRONG 

During  the  last  two  days  of  our  study,  we  have 
been  giving  our  attention  and  fixing  our  thought 
on  what  I  may  call  the  theoretical  side,  to  a  very 
great  extent,  of  this  complicated  and  difficult 
problem.  We  have  tried  to  understand  how  the 
differences  of  nature  arise.  We  have  tried  to 
grasp  the  sublime  idea,  that  this  world  is  intended 
to  grow  from  the  mere  germ  of  life  given  out  by  "(.. 
God  into  the  image  of  Him  who  gave  it  forth. 
The  perfection  of  that  image,  we  have  seen,  can 
only  be  gained  by  the  multiplicity  of  finite  ob-  " 

jects,  and  perfection  lies  in  that  multiplicity;  but 
in  that  same  multiplicity  we  see  is  implied  neces- 
sarily the  limitation  of  each  object.     We  then 
found  that  by  the  law  of  growth  we  must  have  ex- 
isting in  the  universe,  at  one  and  the  same  time, 
every  variety  of  inner  evolving  nature.    As  these      - 
natures  are  all  at  different  stages  of  evolution, 
we  cannot  make  on  all  of  them  the  same  demands, 
nor  expect  from  all  of  them  the  discharge  of  the      ^ . 
same  functions.     Morality  must  be  studied  in  re-         ^ 
lation  to  the  people  who  are  to  practise  it.     In        i 
judging  the  standard  of  right  and  wrong  for  a        ^ 
particular  individual,  we  must  consider  at  what        iP 
stage  of  growth  that  individual  has  arrived.    Ab-       f^ 
solute  right  exists  in  Ishv^ra  alpne;  our  right       ^ 


■^ 


54  DHARMA 

and  wrong  are  relative,  and  depend  for  each  of 
us  very  much  on  the  stage  of  evolution  that  we 
have  reached. 

I  am  going  to  try  this  evening  to  apply  this 
theory  to  the  conduct  of  life.  We  must  see 
whether  we  have  gained,  by  the  line  of  study  that 
we  have  pursued,  a  rational  and  scientific  idea  of 
morality,  so  that  we  may  no  longer  have  the  same 
confusion  that  is  seen  to-day.  For  we  see  that 
ideals  are  held  up  on  one  side  as  those  which 
ought  to  be  reproduced  in  life,  and  on  the  other 
hand  we  find  that  there  is  an  absolute  failure  even 
to  aim  at  these  ideals;  we  behold  a  most  unfor- 
tunate divergence  between  faith  and  practice. 
Morality  is  not  without  its  laws;  like  everything 
else  in  the  universe  that  is  the  expression  of 
divine  thought,  morality  has  also  its  conditions 
and  limitations.  In  this  way  it  may  be  possible  to 
bring  a  cosmos  out  of  the  present  moral  chaos, 
and  to  learn  practical  lessons  in  morality,  which 
will  enable  India  to  grow,  to  develop,  to  become 
again  an  example  to  the  world,  reproducing  her 
ancient  grandeur,  showing  forth  once  more  her 
ancient  spirituality. 

There  are  three  recognized  schools  of  morality 
existing  among  western  people.  We  must  re- 
member that  western  thought  is  very  largely  in- 
fluencing India,  and  especially  is  it  influencing 
the  rising  generation,  on  which  the  hope  of  India 
rests.     It  is,  therefore,  necessary  that  we  should 


iz^l 


RIGHT  AND   WRONG  55 

understand  something  of  these  schools  of  moral- 
ity, differing  in  their  theories  and  teachings,  that 
exist  in  the  west,  if  it  be  only  in  order  to  learn  to 
avoid  their  limitations,  and  to  take  from  them 
whatever  of  good  they  may  have  to  offer.  -  . 

There  is  one  school  that  says  that  revelation 
from  God  is  the  basis  of  morality.  The  objection 
raised  by  opponents  to  that  statement  is  that  in 
this  world  there  are  many  religions,  and  every 
religion  has  its  own  revelation.  Looking  at  this 
variety  of  religious  scriptures,  it  is  argued,  it  is 
difficult  to  say  that  one  revelation  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  based  on  supreme  authority.  That  each 
religion  will  regard  its  own  revelation  as  supreme  ^ 
is  natural,  but  in  this  conflict  of  tongues  how  shall 
a  decision  be  made  by  the  student? 

Then  it  is  said  again  that  there  is  an  inherent 
defect  in  this  theory  affecting  all  moral  standards 
founded  on  a  revelation  given  once  for  all.  In 
order  that  a  scheme  may  be  useful  for  the  time 
for  which  it  is  given,  it  must  be  of  a  nature  suit- 
able for  the  time.  As  a  nation  evolves,  and  thou- 
sands upon  thousands  of  years  pass  over  the 
people,  we  find  that  that  which  was  suitable  for 
the  nation  in  its  infancy  becomes  unsuitable  for 
the  nation  in  its  manhood;  many  precepts  once 
useful  are  no  longer  useful  to-day,  under  the 
changed  circumstances  of  the  time.  That  diffi- 
culty is  recognised  and  met  when  we  come  to  deal 
with  the  Hindu  scriptures;  for  we  find  there  a 


56  DHARMA 

vast  variety  of  moral  teachings  suitable  for  all 
grades  of  evolving  souls.  There  are  precepts  so 
simple,  so  clear,  so  definite,  and  so  imperative, 
that  the  youngest  of  souls  may  utilise  them.  But 
we  find  also  that  the  Rishis  recognised  that  these 
precepts  were  not  meant  for  the  training  of  a 
highly  developed  soul.  We  find  in  the  ancient 
wisdom  that  teachings  were  also  given  to  a  few 
advanced  souls,  teachings  that  at  the  time  were 
utterly  unintelligible  to  the  masses.  Those  teach- 
ings were  restricted  to  an  inner  circle  of  those 
who  had  reached  the  maturity  of  the  human  race. 
Different  schools  of  morality  have  always  been 
recognised  in  Hinduism  as  necessary  for  human 
growth.  But  whenever,  in  some  great  religion, 
that  recognition  is  not  found,  you  get  a  certain 
theoretical  morality  not  suited  to  the  growing 
needs  of  the  people,  and,  therefore,  there  is  a 
sense  of  unreality,  a  feeling  that  it  is  not  reason- 
able to  permit  now  what  was  permitted  in  the  in- 
fancy of  humanity.  On  the  other  hand,  you  find 
here  and  there  in  all  scriptures,  precepts  of  the 
loftiest  character  which  few  can  even  strive  to 
obey.  When  a  command,  suitable  to  the  almost 
savage,  is  made  of  universal  obligation  and  is 
given  on  the  same  authority  and  to  the  same 
people  as  the  command  given  to  the  saint,  there 
creeps  in  the  feeling  of  unreality,  and  confusion 
of  thought  is  the  result. 

Another  school  has  arisen,  which  bases  mor- 
{/^J  ality  onjntuition — which  says  that  God  speaks  to 


RIGHT  AND   WRONG  57 

every  man  through  the  voice  of  conscience.  It 
alleges  that  revelation  is  made  to  nation  after  na- 
tion, but  that  we  are  not  bound  by  any  single 
book;  conscience  is  the  final  arbiter.  The  objec- 
tion made  to  this  theory  is  that  one  man's  con- 
science has  the  same  authority  as  another  man's. 
If  your  conscience  differs  from  that  of  another, 
then  who  may  decide  between  conscience  and 
conscience,  between  the  conscience  of  the  ignor- 
ant rustic  and  the  conscience  of  the  illuminated 
mystic  ?  If  you  say  that  you  admit  the  principle 
of  evolution;  and  that  you  should  take  as  your 
judge  the  highest  conscience  in  the  race,  then 
intuition  fails  as  a  solid  basis  of  morality,  and  the 
very  element  of  variety  destroys  the  rock  on 
which  you  intended  to  build.  The  conscience  is  ) 
the  voice  of  the  inner  man,  who  remembers  the  j 
experiences  of  his  past,  and  out  of  that  immemo- 
rial experience  judges  a  given  line  of  conduct  to- 
day. This  so-called  intuition  is  the  result  of 
countless' incarnations,  and,  according  to  the  num- 
ber of  incarnations,  the  mind  is  evolved  on  which 
the  quality  of  the  conscience  of  the  present  indi- 
vidual depends;  such  intuition,  pure  and  simple, 
cannot  be  taken  as  sufficient  guide  in  morality. 
We  want  a  commanding  voice,  not  a  jangle  of 
tongues.  We  need  the  authority  of  the  teacher, 
and  not  the  confused  gabbling  of  the  crowd. 
'3  j  The  third  school  of  morality  is  the  school  of 
^Utilitarianism.  That  school's  view  is,  as  generally 
p  presented,   neither   reasonable   nor   satisfactory. 


58  DHARMA 

What  is  the  maxim  of  this  school  ?  *'That  is  right 
which  conduces  to  the  greatest  happiness  of  the 
greatest  number.  That  is  wrong  which  does  not 
conduce  to  the  greatest  happiness  of  the  greatest 
number."  It  is  a  maxim  which  will  not  bear 
analysis.  Notice  the  words  "greatest  happiness 
of  the  greatest  number.''  Such  a  limitation  makes 
the  maxim  one  which  the  illuminated  intelligence 
must  reject.  There  is  no  question  of  majority 
when  we  are  dealing  with  mankind.  One  life  is 
its  root,  one  God  its  goal ;  you  cannot  separate  the 
happiness  of  one  from  that  of  another.  You  can- 
not break  up  the  solid  unity,  and,  picking  up  the 
majority,  give  happiness  to  them,  and  leave  the 
minority  disregarded.  This  theory  does  not  rec- 
ognise the  irrefragable  unity  of  the  human  race, 
and  consequently  its  maxim  fails  as  a  basis  of 
morality.  It  fails  because,  in  consequence  of  this 
unity,  one  man  cannot  be  perfectly  happy  unless 
all  men  are  perfectly  happy.  His  happiness  fails 
in  perfection  so  long  as  one  unit  is  left  out,  and 
is  unhappy.  God  does  not  make  distinctions  as 
to  units  and  majorities,  but  gives  one  life  to  hu- 
manity and  to  all  creatures.  The  life  of  God  is 
the  only  life  in  the  universe ;  and  the  perfect  hap- 
piness of  that  life  is  the  goal  of  the  universe. 

Then,  again,  there  is  a  failure  in  this  maxim  as 
an  impelling  motive  because  it  appeals  only  to 
the  developed  intelligence,  that  is,  to  the  highly 
evolved  soul.  If  you  go  to  the  ordinary  man  of 
the  world,  to  a  selfish  person,  and  if  you  say  to 


RIGHT  AND   WRONG  59 

that  man :  "You  must  lead  a  life  of  self-sacrifice, 
and  virtue,  and  perfect  morality,  even  though  the 
leading  it  may  cost  you  your  life,"  what  do  you 
think  would  be  his  answer  ?  Such  a  man  would 
say :  ''Why  should  I  do  this  for  the  human  race, 
for  people  in  the  future  whom  I  shall  never  see?'* 
If  you  take  this  as  the  standard  of  right  and 
wrong,  then  the  martyr  becomes  the  greatest  fool 
that  humanity  has  ever  produced,  for  he  throws 
away  the  possibility  of  happiness  and  gets  nothing 
in  return.  You  cannot  take  this  standard,  save 
by  limiting  your  view  to  the  cases  in  which  you 
get  a  noble  soul,  highly  developed,  and,  though 
not  entirely  spiritual,  with  possibility  of  dawning 
spirituality.  There  are  such  as  William  Kingdon 
Clifford,  in  whose  hands  the  utilitarian  doctrine 
has  become  inspired  with  a  sublime  loftiness  of 
tone.  Clifford,  in  his  essay  on  Ethics,  appeals  to 
the  highest  ideals  and  gives  the  noblest  teachings 
of  self-sacrifice.  He  had  no  belief  in  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul;  approaching  death,  he  could 
stand  beside  the  grave,  believing  that  that  ended 
all,  and  preach  that  the  highest  virtue  is  the  only, 
thing  that  a  true  man  can  practise,  since  he  owes 
it  to  a  world  which  has  given  him  all.  But  very 
few  will  draw  inspiration  so  noble  from  a  pros- 
pect so  gloomy,  and  we  need  a  view  of  right  and 
wrong  that  shall  inspire  all,  appeal  to  all,  and  not 
merely  to  those  who  need  its  impulse  least. 

What  has  come  out  of  all  this  quarrelling? 
Confusion,  and  something  worse.    A  lip-accept- 


60  DHARMA 

ance  of  revelation,  with  a  practical  disregard  of 
it.  We  have,  in  fact,  a  revelation  modified  by 
custom.  That  is  the  standard  which  emerges 
from  this  confusion.  Revelation  is  taken  theo- 
retically as  authority,  but  is  disregarded  in  prac- 
tice, because  often  found  imperfect.  So  that  you 
have  this  unreasonable  position,  that  that  which 
is  declared  as  authority  is  rejected  in  the  life,  and 
a  life  of  an  illogical  kind,  a  happy-go-lucky  Hfe, 
is  led,  without  any  logic  or  reason,  without  the 
basis  of  any  definite  and  rational  system. 

Can  we  find  in  this  idea  of  Dharma  a  basis 
more  satisfactory,  a  basis  on  which  the  conduct 
of  life  may  be  intelligently  built?  However  low 
or  however  high  the  stage  of  evolution  occupied 
by  the  individual,  the  idea  of  Dharma  gives  us 
the  thought  of  an  inner  nature  unfolding  itself 
in  further  growth,  and  we  have  found  that  the 
world  is,  as  a  whole,  evolving — evolving  from  the 
imperfect  to  the  perfect,  from  the  germ  to  the 
divine  man,  stas:e  by  stage,  in  every  grade  of  man- 
ifested life.  That  evolution  is  by  the  divine  will. 
God  is  the  moving  power,  the  guiding  spirit  of  the 
whole.  It  is  His  way  of  building  the  world.  It 
is  the  method  that  He  has  adopted  in  order  that 
the  soirits  that  are  His  children  may  reproduce 
the  likeness  of  their  Parent.  Does  not  that  very 
statement  hint  at  a  law?  That  is  right,  which 
works  with  the  divine  purpose  in  the  evolution  of 
the  universe,  and  forwards  that  evolution  from 
the  imperfect  to   the  perfect.     That   is   wrong, 


RIGHT   AND   WRONG  61 

which  delays  or  frustrates  that  divine  purpose, 
and  tends  to  push  the  universe  back  to  the  stage 
from  which  it  is  evolving.  It  is  growing  from 
the  mineral  to  the  vegetable,  from  the  vegetable 
to  the  animal,  from  the  animal  to  the  animal-man, 
anod  from  the  animal-rnan  to  the  divine  man. 
That  is  right,  which  helps  the  evolution  towards 
divinity ;  that  is  wrong,  which  drags  it  backwards 
or  impedes  its  progress. 

Now,  if  we  look  for  a  moment  at  that  idea 
perhaps  we  shall  acquire  a  clear  view  of  this  law, 
and  no  longer  feel  uneasy  over  this  relative  aspect 
of  right  and  wrong.  Place  a  ladder  with  its  foot 
on  the  platform  and  let  it  rise  to  some  place  be- 
yond the  roof.  Suppose  that  one  of  you  had 
climbed  five  steps  up,  another  two  steps,  while  a 
third  was  standing  on  the  platform.  For  the  man 
who  climbed  up  five  steps  to  stand  beside  the 
man  who  was  on  the  second  step  would  be  to 
descend;  but  for  the  man  on  the  platform  to 
stand  beside  the  man  on  the  second  step  would 
be  to  ascend.  Suppose  that  every  rung  of  the 
ladder  represents  an  action :  each  would  be  moral 
and  immoral  at  the  same  time,  according  to  the 
point  of  view  from  which  we  look  at  it.  That 
action  which  is  moral  for  a  brute-man  would  be 
immoral  for  a  highly-cultivated  man.  For  a  man 
on  the  higher  rung  of  the  ladder  to  come  down 
to  the  lower  is  to  go  against  evolution,  and 
therefore,  for  him  such  action  is  immoral;  but 


62  DHARMA 

for  a  man  to  rise  from  the  lower  stage  to  stand  on 
the  same  rung  is  moral,  because  it  is  in  the  line 
of  his  evolution.  So  that  two  persons  may  well 
stand  on  the  same  rung  of  the  ladder,  but  the  one 
having  gone  upwards  and  the  other  having  come 
downwards  to  reach  it,  the  action  for  the  one  is 
moral  and  for  the  other  is  immoral.  Realise  that 
and  we  shall  begin  to  find  our  law. 

You  have  two  boys :  One  of  them  is  a  clever 
and  intellectual  boy,  but  is  very  fond  of  the  grati- 
fications of  the  body,  very  fond  of  food  and  of 
anything  that  gives  him  sensuous  pleasure.  The 
other  boy  shows  some  dawning  spirituality ;  he  is 
bright,  quick,  and  intellectual.  We  will  take  a 
third  boy  who  shows  the  spiritual  nature  unfolded 
to  a  considerable  extent.  Here  are  three  boys. 
What  motive  shall  we  use  to  help  on  the  evolution 
of  each?  We  go  to  the  young  man  who  is  very 
fond  of  sensual  pleasure.  If  I  say  to  him :  ''My 
son,  your  Hfe  should  be  a  life  of  perfect  unself- 
ishness, you  should  lead  an  ascetic  life,''  he  will 
shrug  his  shoulders  and  go  away ;  and  I  shall  not 
have  helped  him  up  a  single  rung  of  the  ladder. 
If  I  say  to  him :  "My  lad,  these  pleasures  of 
yours  are  pleasures  which  give  you  momentary 
delight,  but  they  will  ruin  your  body  and  shatter 
your  health;  look  on  that  prematurely  old  man 
who  has  led  a  life  of  sensual  indulgence ;  that  will 
be  your  fate  if  you  go  on  thus;  will  it  not  be 
better  to  give  a  part  of  your  time  to  the  cultiva- 
tion of  your  mind,  to  learning  something,  so  that 


RIGHT   AND   WRONG  63 

you  may  be  able  to  write  a  book  or  compose  a 
poem,  or  help  on  some  of  the  world's  work?  You 
may  earn  money  and  get  health  and  fame,  and  by 
this  attempt  you  will  gratify  your  ambition ;  give 
a  fCpee  now  and  then  to  buy  a  book,  instead  of 
buying  a  dinner/'  By  so  addressing  him,  I  stir 
that  youth  with  an  idea  of  ambition ;  selfish  ambi- 
tion I  admit,  but  there  is  not  there  as  yet  the  ^, 
power  to  respond  to  the  appeal  for  self-sacrifice.  .J"' 
The  motive  of  ambition  is  selfish,  but  it  is  selfish-  '' 
ness  of  a  higher  kind  than  that  of  sensual  gratifi- 
cation, and  as  it  gives  him  something  of  the  in- 
tellect, raises  him  out  of  the  brute,  puts  him  on 
the  level  of  the  man  who  is  developing  the  in- 
tellect, and  thus  helps  him  to  rise  higher  in  the 
scale  of  evolution,  that  is  a  wiser  teaching  than 
the  for  him  impracticable  selflessness.  It  gives 
him  not  a  perfect  ideal,  but  an  ideal  suited  to  his 
capacity. 

But  when  I  come  to  my  intellectual  youth  with 
dawning  spirituality,  I  shall  put  before  him  an 
ideal  of  serving  his  country,  of  serving  India;  I 
shall  make  this  his  object  and  aim,  partly  selfish 
and  partly  unselfish,  thus  widening  his  ambition 
and  helping  on  his  evolution.  And  when  I  come 
to  the  youth  of  spiritual  nature,  I  will  drop  all 
lower  motives,  and  appeal,  on  the  contrary,  to  the 
eternal  law  of  self-sacrifice,  to  devotion  to  the 
one  Life,  the  worship  of  the  great  Ones  and  of 
God.  I  shall  teach  Viveka  and  Vairagya,  and  thus 
help  the  spiritual  nature  to  unfold  its  infinite  pos- 


64  DHARMA 

sibilities.  Thus,  understanding  morality  as  rela- 
tive, we  are  able  to  work  effectively.  If  we  fail 
to  help  every  soul  in  its  own  place,  it  is  because 
we  are  ill-trained  teachers. 

//In  every  nation  there  are  certain  definite  things 
which  are  marked  as  wrong,  such  as  murder, 
theft,  lying,  vileness.  All  these  are  recognised  as 
crimes.  That  is  the  general  view.  But  it  is  not 
wholly  borne  out  by  facts.  How  far  are  these 
things  recognised  as  moral  and  how  far  as  im- 
moral in  practice?  Why  are  they  recognised  as 
wrong?  Because  the  masses  of  the  nation  have 
reached  a  certain  stage  of  evolution.  Because  the 
majority  of  the  nation  are  at  about  the  same  level 
of  growth,  and  at  that  level  they  recognise  these 
things  as  evil,  as  against  progress.  The  result  is 
that  the  minority,  being  below  this  stage,  is  re- 
garded as  being  made  up  of  ^'criminals."  The 
majority  has  reached  a  higher  stage  of  evolution, 
and  the  majority  makes  the  law ;  then  those  who 
cannot  come  up  even  to  the  lowest  level  of  the 
majority  are  dubbed  criminals.  Two  types  of 
criminals  present  themselves  to  our  view.  One 
type  upon  which  we  cannot  make  any  impression 
by  appealing  to  their  sense  of  right  and  wrong. 
They  are  spoken  of  by  the  ignorant  public  as 
hardened  criminals.  But  this  view  is  a  mistaken 
one,  and  leads  to  lamentable  results.  They  are 
merely  ignorant  ungrown  souls,  child-souls,  in- 
fants in  the  school  of  life,  and  we  do  not  help 


RIGHT  AND   WRONG  65 

them  to  grow  by  trampling  them  down  and  bru- 
talising  them  further,  because  they  are  scarcely 
a  grade  removed  from  the  brute.  We  should  use 
all  the  means  in  our  power,  all  that  our  reason 
can  suggest,  to  guide  and  teach  these  child-houls, 
to  discipline  them  into  a  better  life;  let  us  not 
treat  them  as  hardened  criminals  because  they 
are  mere  babies  in  the  nursery. 

The  other  type  of  criminals  is  made  up  of  those 
who  feel  a  certain  amount  of  remorse  and  repent- 
ance after  the  commission  of  a  crime :  who  know 
that  they  have  done  wrong.  They  stand  on  a 
higher  level  and  can  be  helped  to  resist  evil  in 
future  by  the  very  suffering  imposed  on  them  by 
human  law.  1  spoke  of  the  necessity  of  all  expe- 
rience, in  order  that  the  soul  might  learn  to  dis- 
cern between  right  and  wrong.  We  need  experi- 
ence of  good  and  evil  until  we  can  discriminate 
the  good  from  the  evil,  but  no  further.  The 
moment  the  two  lines  of  actions  are  distinct  be- 
fore you,  and  you  know  that  the  one  is  right  and 
the  other  is  wrong,  then  if  you  choose  the  wrong, 
road  you  are  committing  sin,  you  are  going 
against  a  law  that  you  know  and  admit.  A  man 
at  this  stage  commits  sin,  because  his  desires  are 
strong,  prompting  him  to  choose  the  path  which 
is  wrong.  He  suffers,  and  it  is  well  that  he 
should  suffer,  if  he  follows  these  desires.  The 
moment  the  knowledge  of  wrong  is  present  there, 
at  that  moment  also  there  is  deliberate  degracfa- 


66  DHARMA 

tion  in  yielding  to  the  impulse.  Experience  of 
the  wrong  is  only  needed  before  the  wrong  is 
recognised  as  wrong,  and  in  order  that  it  may 
come  to  be  so  recognised.  When  two  courses  are 
before  a  man,  neither  of  which  appears  to  him 
to  be  morally  different  from  the  other,  then  he 
may  take  either  of  those  courses  and  commit  no 
wrong.  But  the  moment  a  thing  is  known  to  be 
wrong,  it  is  a  treason  to  ourselves  to  allow  the 
brute  in  us  to  overpower  the  God  in  us.  That  is 
what  is  really  sin ;  that  is  what  is  the  condition  of 
most,  but  not  all,  wrong-doers  to-day. 

Let  us  pass  from  that  and  look  at  some  par- 
ticular faults  a  little  more  closely.  Take  murder : 
we  find  that  the  common  sense  of  the  community 
makes  a  distinction  between  killing  and  killing. 
If  a  man  takes  up  a  knife  in  anger  and  stabs  his 
enemy,  the  law  calls  him  a  murderer  and  hangs 
him.  If  a  thousand  men  take  up  knives  and  stab 
a  thousand  men,  then  the  killing  is  called  war. 
Glory,  and  not  punishment,  is  awarded  to  him 
who  thus  kills.  The  same  crowd  who  hoot  the 
murderer  of  one  enemy,  cheer  the  men  who  have 
killed  ten  thousand  enemies.  What  is  this  strange 
anomaly  ?  How  can  we  explain  it  ?  Is  there  any- 
thing to  justify  the  verdict  of  the  community? 
Is  there  any  distinction  between  the  two  acts 
which  justifies  the  difference  of  treatment?  There 
is.  War  is  a  thing  against  which  the  public  con- 
science more  and  more  protests,  and  in  a  moment 


RIGHT  AND   WRONG  67 

we  shall  have  to  look  at  this  fact  of  the  growth  of 
the  public  conscience.  But  while  we  should  do 
all  we  can  to  prevent  war,  should  try  to  spread 
peace  and  to  educate  our  children  in  the  love  of 
peace,  there  is  none  the  less  a  real  distinction  be- 
tween the  conduct  of  one  who  kills  through  pri- 
vate malice,  and  the  killing  which  takes  place  in 
war ;  this  difference  is  so  far-reaching  that  I  shall 
dilate  upon  it  a  little.  In  the  one  case,  a  per- 
sonal grudge  is  satisfied,  and  a  personal  satisfac- 
tion is  found.  In  the  other  case,  one  man  in 
killing  another  man  is  not  gratifying  a  personal 
feeling,  is  serving  no  personal  object,  is  seeking 
no  personal  gain.  The  men  are  killing  each 
other  as  an  act  of  obedience  to  a  command  laid 
on  them  by  their  superiors,  whose  is  the  respon- 
sibility for  the  righteousness  of  the  war.  All  my 
life  I  have  preached  peace,  and  I  have  striven  to 
show  the  evils  of  war.  But,  none  the  less,  1 
recognise  that  there  is  much  in  the  mere  discipline 
of  the  military  force  which  is  of  vital  importance 
to  those  who  are  subjected  to  that  training.  What 
does  the  soldier  learn?  He  learns  obedience  to 
order,  cleanliness,  quickness,  accuracy,  prompt- 
ness in  action,  and  willingness  to  undergo  physi- 
cal hardships  without  complaint  or  murmur.  He 
learns  to  risk  his  life  and  to  give  it  for  an  ideal 
cause.  Is  not  that  a  training  which  has  its  place 
in  the  evolution  of  the  soul?  Does  not  the  soul 
profit  by  this  training?  When  the  ideal  of  the 
country  fires  the  heart,  when  life  is  sacrificed  for 


68  DHARMA 

it  gladly  by  rough,  common,  and  uneducated  men, 
they  may  be  rude,  violent,  drunken,  but  they  are 
passing  through  a  training,  which,  in  lives  to 
come  will  make  them  better  and  nobler  men. 

'  Then  take  a  phrase  used  by  an  Englishman  of 
somewhat  strange  genius,  Rudyard  Kipling,  who 
makes  soldiers  say  that  they  will  fight  ''for  the 
widow  at  Windsor."  That  may  sound  a  little 
rough,  but  it  is  well  for  the  man  who  starves,  who 
suffers  mutilation  on  the  battlefield,  if  he  sees  be- 
fore him  his  Queen-Empress,  mother  of  millions 
of  people,  and  offers  up  his  life  to  her,  learning 
for  the  first  time  the  beauty  of  fidelity,  of  courage, 
and  devotion.  There  is  the  distinction  which, 
very  dimly  grasped  by  the  public,  marks  the  dis- 
tinction between  private  killing  and  war.  For  the 
interest  of  the  one  is  personal;  that  of  the  other 
belongs  to  a  wider  self — the  self  of  the  nation. 

In  deahng  with  this  question  of  morality,  we 
fall  often  practically  below  that  view.  There  are 
many  cases  of  theft,  of  lying,  of  killing,  that  the 
law  of  man  does  not  punish,  but  that  the  law  of 
karma  notes  and  brings  back  to  the  doer.  Many 
an  act  of  theft  is  disguised  as  commerce ;  many  an 
act  of  cheating  is  disguised  as  trade ;  many  a  fine 
arrangement  of  lies  is  classified  as  diplomacy. 
Crime  reappears  under  startling  forms,  disguised 
and  hidden,  and  men  have  to  learn  self-purifica- 
tion in  life  after  life.  Then  comes  in  another 
consideration,  before  we  come  to  the  essence  of 


RIGHT  AND   WRONG  69 

sin — one  which  I  cannot  entirely  overpass — 
thought  and  action.  There  are  some  actions 
which  a  man  commits  which  are  inevitable.  You 
do  not  understand  what  you  are  doing  when  you 
allow  yourself  to  think  along  a  line  of  wrong. 
You  covet  in  thought  another  man's  gold;  you 
are  grasping  with  your  mind's  hands  at  every 
moment  what  is  not  yours.  You  are  building  the 
Dharma  of  the  thief.  The  inner  nature,  the  in- 
terior nature,  is  Dharma,  and  if  you  build  that 
inner  nature  by  thoughts  that  are  evil,  you  will 
be  born  with  the  Dharma  that  will  carry  you  to 
deeds  of  vice.  Those  deeds  will  be  done  without 
thought.  Have  you  any  idea  how  many  thoughts 
in  you  have  already  gone  towards  the  making  of 
an  action?  You  may  dam  up  water  and  prevent 
it  from  flowing  along  a  channel,  but  the  moment  a 
hole  is  made  in  the  dam,  the  pent-up  water  will 
flow  through  the  hole  and  sweep  the  dam  away. 
So  is  it  with  thought  and  action.  Thought  ac- 
cumulates slowly  behind  the  dam  of  absence  of 
opportunity.  As  you  think  and  think,  the  stream 
of  thought  grows  fuller  and  fuller  behind  the 
breastwork  of  circumstances.  In  another  life  that 
breastwork  of  circumstances  gives  way,  and  the 
action  is  committed  before  any  new  thought  has 
occurred.  Those  are  the  inevitable  crimes,  which 
sometimes  blast  a  great  career,  when  the  thought 
of  the  past  finds  its  fruitage  in  the  present,  when 
the  karma  of  accumulated  thought  comes  forth  as 
action.    If  the  opportunity  comes  to  you,  and  you 


70  DHARMA 

have  time  to  pause,  time  to  say,  "Shall  I  do  it?" 
then  that  action  is  not  inevitable  for  you.  The 
pause  for  thought  means  that  you  can  put  the 
thought  on  the  other  side,  and  so  strengthen  the 
barrier.  There  is  no  excuse  for  doing  an  action 
which  you  have  thought  of  as  wrong.  Those  ac- 
tions only  are  inevitable  which  are  done  without 
thinking,  where  the  thought  belongs  to  the  past 
and  the  action  to  the  present. 

We  come  now  to  the  great  question  of  sepa- 
rateness: — There  lies  in  every  deed  the  essence 
of  wrong.  In  the  past  separateness  was  right. 
The  great  course  of  the  divine  life-stream 
was  dividing  itself  into  multiplicity;  it  was 
needed  to  build  up  individual  centres  of 
consciousness.  So  long  as  a  centre  needs 
strengthening,  separateness  is  on  the  side 
of  progress.  Souls  at  one  period  need  to  be  self- 
ish; they  cannot  do  without  selfishness  in  the 
early  stages  of  growth.  But  now  the  law  of 
progressing  life  for  the  more  advanced  is  the  out- 
growing of  separateness,  and  the  seeking  to  real- 
ise unity.  We  are  now  on  the  path  towards 
unity;  we  are  approaching  nearer  and  nearer  to 
each  other.  We  must  now  unite,  in  order  to  grow 
further.  The  purpose  is  the  same,  though  the 
method  has  changed  in  the  evolution  through  the 
ages.  The  public  conscience  is  beginning  to  rec- 
ognise that  not  in  separateness  but  in  unity  there 
lies  the  true  growth  of  a  nation.  We  are  trying 
to  substitute  arbitration  for  war,  co-operation  for 


RIGHT  AND   WRONG  71 

competition,  protection  of  the  weak  for  tramp- 
ling them  under  foot,  and  all  this  because  the  line 
of  evolution  now  goes  towards  unity  and  not 
towards  separateness.  Separation  is  the  mark  of 
descent  into  matter,  and  unification  is  the  mark  of 
the  ascent  to  spirit.]  The  world  is  on  the  upward 
trend,  although  thousands  of  souls  may  lag  be- 
hind. The  ideal  now  is  for  peace,  co-operation, 
protection,  brotherhood,  and  helpfulness.  The 
essence  of  sin  now  lies  in  separateness. 

But  that  thought  leads  us  on  to  another  test  of 
conduct.  Is  the  action  we  are  doing  one  which 
seeks  our  own  gain,  or  which  helps  on  the  gen- 
eral good  ?  Is  our  life  a  self-seeking  useless  life, 
or  does  it  help  humanity?  If  it  is  selfish,  then  it 
is  wrong,  it  is  evil,  it  is  almost  the  growth  of  the 
world.  If  you  be  among  those  who  have  seen  the 
beauty  of  the  ideal  of  unity,  and  have  recognised 
the  perfection  of  the  divine  manhood  that  we 
seek,  then  wou  should  kill  out  this  heresy  of 
separateness  in  yourself. 

When  we  look  at  much  of  the  teaching  of  the 
past  and  see  the  conduct  of  the  sages,  certain 
questions  in  morality  arise,  which  some  find  it 
rather  hard  to  answer.  I  raise  this  question  here, 
because  I  may  suggest  to  you  the  line  of  thought 
by  which  you  mayBefend  the  Shastras  from  carp- 
ing critics,  and  which  may  enable  you  to  profit 
by  their  teachings,  without  becoming  confused. 
A  great  sage  is  not  always,  in  his  conduct,  an  ex- 


72  DHARMA 

ample  that  an  ordinary  man  should  endeavour  to 
follow.  When  I  speak  now  of  a  great  sage,  I 
mean  one  in  whom  all  personal  desire  is  dead, 
who  is  not  attracted  to  any  object  in  the  world, 
whose  only  life  is  in  obedience  to  the^ivine  will, 
who  gives  himself  as  one  of  the  channels  of  divine 
force  for  the  helping  of  the  world.  He  performs 
the  functions  of  a  God,  and  the  functions  of  the 
Gods  differ  much  from  the  functions  of  men. 
The  earth  is  full  of  all  kinds  of  catastrophes—- 
wars,  earthquakes,  famine,  pestilences,  plagues. 
Who  is  their  cause  ?  There  is  no  cause  in  God's 
universe  save  God  Himself,  and  these  things 
which  seem  so  terrible,  so  shocking,  so  painful, 
are  His  ways  of  teaching  us  when  we  are  going 
wrong.  A  plague  sweeps  off  thousands  of  the 
men  of  a  nation.  A  mighty  war  scatters  its  thou- 
sands of  dead  on  the  field  of  carnage.  Why? 
Because  that  nation  had  disregarded  the  divine 
law  of  its  growth,  and  must  learn  its  lesson  by 
suffering,  if  it  will  not  learn  it  by  reason.  Plague 
is  the  result  of  disregarding  the  laws  of  health 
and  of  clean  living.  God  is  too  merciful  to  per- 
mit a  law  to  be  disregarded  by  the  whims  and 
fancies  and  feelings  of  slowly  evolving  man,  with- 
out calling  attention  to  the  disregard.  These 
catastrophes  are  worked  by  the  Gods,  by  the 
agents  of  Ishvara,  who,  invisible  throughout  the 
world,  administer  the  divine  law,  as  a  magistrate 
administers  the  civil  laws.  Just  because  they  are 
administrators  of  the  law,  and  are  acting  imper- 


RIGHT  AND   WRONG  73 

sonally,  their  actions  are  no  more  examples  for  us 
to  follow  than  the  action  of  the  judge  in  imprison- 
ing a  criminal  is  an  example  to  show  that  an 
ordinary  man  may  take  revenge  on  his  enemy. 
Look,  for  instance,  at  the  great  sage  Narada. 
We  find  him  stirring  up  war  when  two  nations 
have  reached  a  point  where  the  higher  good  of 
each  can  only  be  gained  by  the  struggles  of  war 
and  by  the  conquest  of  one  by  the  other.  Bodies 
are  killed,  and  it  is  the  best  help  to  the  men  thus 
slain  that  their  bodies  should  be  struck  away, 
and  that,  in  new  bodies,  they  may  have  greater 
possibility  of  growth.  Gods  bring  about  the  battle 
in  which  thousands  of  men  are  slain.  It  would 
be  wicked  for  us  to  imitate  them,  because  to  stir 
up  war  for  the  sake  of  conquest,  or  gain,  or  ambi- 
tion, or  for  some  object  where  personality  comes 
in,  is  sinful.  But  in  the  case  of  Narada  it  is  not 
so,  because  Devarshis  such  as  he  is  are  helping 
the  world  along  the  path  of  evolution  by  striking 
away  the  obstacles.  You  will  understand  some- 
thing of  the  wonders  and  mysteries  of  the  uni- 
verse when  you  know  that  things  that  seem  evil 
from  the  side  of  form  are  good  from  the  side  of 
life;  all  that  happens  is  working  for  the  best. 
''There  is  a  divinity  that  shapes  our  ends,  rough 
hew  them  how  we  will."  Religion  is  right  when  it 
says  that  the  Gods  rule  over  the  world  and  guide 
nations,  and  lead  and  even  scourge  them  into  the 
right  path  when  they  go  astray. 


n 


74  DHARMA 


A  man,  full  of  personality  and  attracted  by  the 
J(f  objects  of  desire,  whose  whole  self  is  kama,  such 
a  man,  committing  an  action  instigated  by  Kama, 
often  commits  a  crime ;  but  the  very  same  action 
committed  by  a  liberal  soul,  free  from  all  desire, 
in  carrying  out  the  divine  order,  would  be  rightly 
done.  In  the  utter  disbelief  that  men  have  fallen 
into  as  to  the  working  of  the  Gods,  such  words 
may  seem  strange,  but  there  is  no  energy  in  nature 
which  is  not  the  physical  manifestation  of  a  God 
carrying  out  the  will  of  the  Supreme.  That  is  the 
true  view  of  nature.  We  see  the  side  of  form  and, 
blinded  by  Maya,  call  it  evil;  but  the  Gods,  as 
they  break  up  forms,  are  clearing  away  every 
obstacle  that  obstructs  the  way  of  evolution. 

We  may  here  understand  one  or  two  of  those 
other  questions  that  are  often  thrown  in  our  faces 
by  those  who  take  a  superficial  view  of  things. 
Supposing  a  man,  who  is  longing  to  commit  a  sin, 
is  prevented  from  committing  it  solely  by  the 
pressure  of  circumstances ;  suppose  that  the  long- 
ing is  growing  stronger  and  stronger;  what  is 
the  best  thing  for  him  ?  To  have  an  opportunity 
to  put  his  longing  into  action.  To  commit  a 
crime?  Yes,  even  a  crime  is  less  injurious  to  the 
soul  than  a  continued  brooding  over  it  in  the 
mind,  the  growing  of  a  cancer  at  the  heart  of  life. 
An  action  once  done  is  dead,  and  the  suffering 
that   follows  it  teaches  the  needed  lesson,   but 


RIGHT   AND   WRONG  75 

thought  is  generative  and  Hving.*  Do  you  under- 
stand that  ?  If  you  do,  then  you  will  also  under- 
stand why  you  find  in  the  scriptures  a  God  put- 
ting in  the  way  of  a  man  an  opportunity  of  com- 
mitting the  sin  that  man  is  longing  to  commit,  and 
in  fact  is  committing  in  his  heart.  He  will  suffer, 
no  doubt  for  his  sin,  but  he  will  learn  by  the 
suffering  that  falls  on  the  wrong-doer.  Had  that 
evil  thought  been  left  to  grow  in  the  heart,  it 
would  have  grown  stronger  and  stronger,  and 
would  have  gradually  wrecked  the  whole  moral 
nature  of  the  man.  For  it  is  like  a  cancer  which, 
if  not  speedily  removed,  will  poison  the  whole 
body.  Far  more  merciful  it  is,  that  such  a  man 
should  sin  and  suffer  pain  than  that  he  should 
long  to  sin  and  be  held  back  by  lack  of  opportu- 
nity merely,  and  thus  make  inevitable  degradation 
for  lives  to  com/e. 

So  also  if  a  man  is  making  rapid  progress,  and 
there  is  a  hidden  weaknes  in  him,  or  some  past 
Karma  not  exhausted,  or  evil  deed  not  expiated, 
that  man  cannot  be  liberated  while  that  Karma 
remains  unexhausted,  while  there  is  a  debt  still 
unpaid.    What  is  the  most  merciful  thing  to  9o  ? 

*  This  does  not  mean  that  a  man  should  commit  a  sin  rather 
than  struggle  against  it.  So  long  as  he  struggles,  it  is  well  with 
him,  and  he  is  gaining  strength.  The  case  referred  to  is  where 
there  is  no  struggle,  but  where  the  man  is  longing  to  do  the 
action  and  only  lacks  opportunity.  In  such  case,  the  sooner  the 
opportunity  comes,  the  better  for  the  man;  the  pent-uo  longing 
breaks  forth,  the  realised  wish  brings  suffering,  the  man  ,t»»aisJ 
a  necessary  lesson,  and  is  purged  of  an  ever-increasing  moral 
poison. 


76  DHARMA 

To  help  that  man  to  pay  his  debt  in  anguish  and 
degradation,  so  that  the  misery  following  on  the 
fault  may  exhaust  the  Karma  of  the  past.  It 
means  that  there  is  swept  out  of  his  way  an  ob- 
stacle that  prevents  its  liberation,  and  God  puts 
that  temptation  in  his  way  to  break  the  last  barrier 
down.  I  have  not  time  to  work  out  the  details 
of  this  most  pregnant  line  of  thought,  but  I  ask 
you  to  follow  it  for  yourselves  and  see  what  it 
means,  and  how  it  illuminates  the  dark  problems 
WN.  of  growth,  the  falls  of  the  saints. 
^  If,  when  you  have  assimilated  it,  you  then  read 
such  a  book  as  the  Mahdhharata,  you  will  under 
stand  the  workings  of  the  Gods  in  the  affairs  of 
men ;  you  will  see  the  Gods  working  in  storm  and 
sunshine,  in  peace  and  in  war,  and  you  will  know 
that  it  is  well  with  the  man  and  with  the  nation, 
whatever  may  occur  to  them ;  for  the  noblest  wis- 
dom and  the  tenderest  love  are  guiding  them  to 
their  appointed  goal. 

I  come  now  to  the  last  word — a  word  I  will 
dare  to  speak  to  you  who  have  been  listening  to 
me  patiently  on  a  subject  so  difficult  and  abstruse. 
There  is  a  yet  higher  note :  know  that  there  is  a 
supreme  goal,  and  the  last  steps  on  the  path  to 
it  are  not  the  steps  where  Dharma  can  any  longer 
guide  us.  Let  us  take  some  wonderful  words 
from  the  great  Teacher,  Shri  Krishna,  and  let  us 
see  how  in  His  final  instruction  He  speaks  of 
something  loftier  than  anything  on  which  we 
have  dared  to  touch.     Here  is  His  message  of 


RIGHT  AND   WRONG  ^^ 

peace :  "Listen  thou  again  to  My  supreme  word, 
most  secret  of  all;  beloved  art  thou  of  Me,  and 
steadfast  of  heart,  therefore  will  I  speak  for  thy 
benefit.  Merge  thy  Manas  in  Me,  be  my  devotee, 
sacrifice  to  Me,  prostrate  thyself  before  Me,  thou 
shalt  come  even  to  Me.  Abandoning  all  Dhar- 
mas,  come  unto  Me  alone  for  shelter ;  sorrow  not, 
I  will  liberate  thee  from  all  sins.''* 

My  last  words  are  addressed  only  to  those  who 
lead  here  a  life  of  supreme  longing  to  sacrifice 
themselves ;  they  have  a  right  to  these  last  words 
of  hope  and  peace.  Then  the  end  of  Dharma  is 
reached.  Then  the  man  desires  no  longer  any- 
thing save  the  Lord.  When  the  soul  has  reached 
that  stage  of  evolution  where  it  asks  nothing  of 
the  world,  but  gives  itself  wholly  to  God,  when 
it  has  outgrown  all  the  promptings  of  desire, 
when  the  heart  has  gained  freedom  by  love, 
when  the  whole  being  throws  itself  forward  at 
the  feet  of  the  Lord — then  abandon  you  all 
Dharmas ;  they  are  no  longer  for  you ;  no  longer 
for  you  the  law  of  growth,  no  longer  for  you  that 
balancing  of  duty,  no  longer  for  you  that  scrutiny 
of  conduct.  You  have  given  yourself  to  the 
Lord.  There  is  nothing  left  in  you  that  is  not 
divine.  What  Dharma  can  any  longer  remain 
for  you,  for,  united  to  Him,  you  are  no  longer 
a  separated  self.  Your  life  is  hid  in  Him,  His 
life  is  yours;  you  may  be  living  in  the  world, 
you   are   but   His   instruments.     You   are   His 

*  Bhagavad  Glta,  xviii.   64-66. 


wholly.  Your  life  is  Ishvara's,  and  Dharma  has 
no  longer  any  claim  on  you.  Your  devotion  has 
liberated  you,  for  your  life  is  hid  in  God.  That 
is  the  word  of  the  Teacher.  That  is  the  last 
thought  I  would  leave  with  you. 

And  now,  my  brothers,  farewell.  Our  work 
together  is  done.  After  this  imperfect  presenta- 
tion of  a  mighty  subject,  may  I  say  to  you :  listen 
to  the  thought  in  the  message,  and  not  to  the 
speaker  who  is  the  messenger ;  open  your  hearts 
to  the  thought,  and  forget  the  imperfection  of  the 
lips  that  have  spoken  it.  Remember  that  as  we 
climb  to  God,  we  must  need  try,  however,  feebly, 
to  pass  on  to  our  brothers  some  touch  of  that  life 
we  reach  after.  Forget  therefore  the  speaker, 
but  remember  the  teaching.  Forget  the  imper- 
fections whfch  are  in  the  messenger,  not  in  the 
message.  Worship  the  God  whose  teaching  we 
have  been  studying,  and  pardon  in  your  charity 
the  faults  of  the  servant  who  has  given  it  utter- 
ance. 

Peace:  to  all  Beings. 


LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

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NOV  2  8  1969  i  3 


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General  Library 

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